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The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has called on the Federal Government to go beyond the processing of crude in the old Porth Harcourt refinery and expedite work in all the other refineries in the country including the new Porth Harcourt refinery.
President of the TUC, Comrade Festus Osifo who briefed newsmen at the end of its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Tuesday in Abuja, maintained that all the refineries put together could generate at least 400,000 barrels per day.
Commending the smooth take-off of the old Porth Harcourt refinery, he, however, stressed that having all other four refineries in the stream would foster healthy competition, thus eliminating monopoly in the oil and gas sector.
He said: “We have heard reports that the Port Harcourt refinery has resumed processing crude, but we are working to validate this claim. Beyond this, we urge the government to expedite work on other refineries, including Warri, Kaduna, and the new Port Harcourt refinery.
“These facilities hold the capacity to produce close to 400,000 barrels per day. Restoring them to full operation will break the monopoly in the oil and gas downstream sector and foster healthy competition so we call on the government to expedite action in all these refineries.
“Because if you eliminate monopoly, it will put a system of competition into the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry.”
Osifo urged states yet to implement the new minimum wage with its consequential adjustments, especially the governments of Cross River and Zamfara states to prioritise the welfare of workers.
“The Minimum Wage Act was assigned into law sometime in July. Since this was signed, a lot of states started making pronouncements, announcing different figures as their minimum wage.
“It is not enough for states to announce new minimum wage figures, there must be consequential adjustments to ensure workers feel the real impact of these increases. So we are calling on some states to sit down with organized labour to draw the table as regards consequential adjustments so that workers across each of these states will start benefiting from the new national minimum wage.
“There are some states where there is no conversation whatsoever. We are calling on the government of Cross River State to take the issues of workers more seriously and put them on the front burner.
“Zamfara as we speak have not even considered a committee to discuss the issues of minimum wage. So there is no conversation going on currently in Zamfara State on how the new minimum wage will be implemented and how the consequential adjustments will be done.
“We are hereby calling on the government of Zamfara to emulate what is happening in the state that is very close to it that also has similar revenues; a state like Kebbi today is taking a leap regarding issues that are bothering on the welfare of workers.
“So we call on the state to quickly as a matter of urgency, implement the new minimum wage with its consequential adjustments.”
While calling for an expansion of tax relief to more Nigerians given the high cost of goods and harsh economy, the TUC President encouraged the government to deploy the infrastructure for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) especially the conversion of buses convey students and workers to school and their places of work respectively, for free.
“The infrastructure for CNG is in most state capitals. Beyond those state capitals, we are encouraging the government to also make the kit available to buses that convey students, to buses that convey workers, the transportation unions and the transportation sector so that they would be able to convert their buses and start using CNG that would reduce the cost of transportation.”
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