FG, Governors to meet over petrol, electricity prices

Federal Government will meet with state governors and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Thursday to find a solution to issue of right pricing for Premium Motor Spirit(PMS) in the country. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, said this while speaking with newsmen at the end of a meeting between the Federal Government and Organised Labour in Monday in Abuja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting is continuation of the series of meetings held in 2020 in a bid to persuade labour unions from embarking on industrial action over the increase in the price of petrol and electricity.

Ngige said that the meeting with organised labour was peaceful and productive. “As for the issue of the price of PMS, it is a work in progress. The governors are to discuss this on Thursday at the National Economic Council and hopefully there will be a way out of the situation,” he said. He also said that both sides have resolved to allow more time in order to look into ways of tinkering with the template for fixing domestic fuel price. Ngige said on the issue of electricity tariff that the report was well recieved by both sides and the committee was asked to continue further work on grey areas. He said that the meeting with organised labour was adjourned till April, after the Easter celebration.

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Ayuba Wabba, said they were able to point out areas of the report on PMS pricing that labour was not in agreement with. Wabba also said that labour maintained that it was not comfortable with the import pricing method that was adopted by the country. “This means that we import 100 per cent of all the PMS used in the country, whereas we have refineries. The reports were presented and we pointed out areas that we are not comfortable with and also made some  suggestions which will form the basis of decisions on the matter,” he said. The Federal Government had in November 2020 raised the depot price of petrol from N147.67 to N155.17 per litre, enforcing marketers to sell between 165 and 173 Naira per litre.