1 week Ago By Success Nwogu
A former President of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Mr. Peter Esele, has said the 100 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses recently introduced by the Federal Government as one of the strategies to mitigate the high cost of transport is inadequate and highly negligible. Transport cost rose following the withdrawal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu during his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023.
Also the increment in fuel pump prices by the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, which has made a litre of fuel to be sold for N1,000 and above in many states of the country, has led to a skyrocket in transportation cost, reduced mobility of people and negatively affecting businesses and other social-economic activities. Esele, also a former President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), in an interview with New Telegraph over the weekend, urged the government to maximise the abundant gas reserves of the country to address the soaring transport cost and reduce hardship in the country. He said it was necessary for the nation to have a gas masterplan.
Esele said: “We are talking of CNG buses. The government came up with 100 CNG buses. That is like dropping water in an ocean.
“People talk about Nigeria being an oil country. Nigeria is a gas producing country rather than crude oil producing country. But, over the years, none of this administrations from 1999 has put in place gas utilisation in the country.
I do not want to go to the military era. Much of what we do is that we export the gas and that is where we make a lot of money through NLNG. “But we have not said: ‘let us have a gas masterplan where everybody gets to use gas.
That will also reduce cost, even in manufacturing. All you have to do is to tap into the gas pipeline. Once we have this gas master plan, that will help.
if we say we are going to CNG, then let us go for that and structure what to do to have that.” He also noted that many electricity consumers, who have been migrated to Band A classification, may not have money to pay for their bills. He, however, said that power had stabilised in some of the Band A areas.
Esele said: “Recently, the issue of Band A and Band B came. They just gave me Band A. I did not ask for it.
Yes, power has stabilised. I get more than 20 hours of power a day. But the challenge is how can I afford to pay what they are asking me to pay.
“That is the challenge. You are struggling to pay that and the next challenge is that you have to deal with subsidy removal. You also have to deal with naira and dollar floats.
“But none of these, the government may have to say we have better plans that tomorrow will be better. Theoretically, yes. But in practical terms, what I have learnt over the years as a Nigerian is that what we do and say are miles apart.
“Another aspect of that is to put money in people’s pockets. How do you do that? Nigeria is the only country where the government has seen that people are going through financial stress and what the government does is that they start taxing people more. “You do not tax more people who are already down.
You give people an opportunity to reduce their taxes. If you want to put money in their pocket, you can do it by reducing the cost of education or school fees and taxes they pay to the government. Pay-As-You-Earn.
“What drives the economy is the middle class. Now the middle class in Nigeria does not exist. So you now have the very rich and the poor.
If there is no middle class the economy of that country is going to go under. So, theoretically, what the government is trying to do, you may look at it that in the long run, it may be efficient but the government of Nigeria has to be disciplined to follow through. That is another question for another day.
” The former labour leader urged Nigerians to hold governors and local government chairmen accountable for the resources at their disposal. He opined that the governors and LG chairmen had received more financial allocation during the administration of President BolaTinubu than other administrations. He stated that they also had the responsibility to mitigate the hardship on the people.
Esele said: “So FG has a responsibility but we also have to ask the state governors what they are doing. It is not the responsibility of the Federal Government to address local transportation. “It is the responsibility of the state and local governments.
What FG can do is to add more money to it. For instance, as they were doing with UBE during the administration of Chief Obasanjo. The FG will say, you contribute 40 per cent, I will contribute 60 per cent.
“Governors too are not also helping matters. We are also not asking questions about how much governors have received since the advent of this administration on May 29, 2023. “They are getting over 150 per cent over what they were taking during the last administration.
So we also need to ask ourselves questions. We need to ask the local government chairmen what they are doing with the money. “But because of the way our system is wired, everything is looking at the Federal Government.
We need to ask our governors what plans they have. On CNG, Federal Government can come and give you backing but the state government will say this is our plan..
