SPEECH DELIVERED BY COMRADE ABDULWAHED OMAR, PRESIDENT, NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS (NLC) AT THE 2ND QUADRENNIAL DELEGATES CONFERENCE OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS WORKERS (NUPENG) ON THURSDAY DECEMBER 3, 2009 AT THE MERIT HOUSE, ABUJA 

Protocols,

On behalf of the National executive council of the Nigeria Labour Congress, It is indeed my great pleasure in saluting our members in the National Union of petroleum and natural gas Workers on this important occasion of your 2^nd Quadrennial Delegates Conference.

Occasions like this, help us through actions and deeds, to reaffirm the democratic foundations our movement. It enables us to renew faith in the constitution of our organization, and the showcase of our belief in democratic principles. Our hope is that the political elite will borrow a leaf and allow transparent and democratic values of political parties leadership and governance in our Country to thrive.

Distinguished delegates, invited guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are here today to bear testimony to the fact that NUPENG is one of the great pillars of our Labour movement. Your leadership in the past and present have always been active in the activities of Congress and the movement as a whole. Let me on behalf of our NEC thank you once again for being a reliable and dependable affiliate of Congress.

This quadrennial conference is taking place at a momentous time in the history of our Country as well as the petroleum industry from where the bulk of our nation’s revenue comes. Your conference is coming on the heels of the Federal Government amnesty programme in the Niger Delta. It is also taking place in the midst of an intensive national debate, or better still campaign for the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry by Government and its agencies.  Thirdly, your conference is holding as the national assembly is debating the petroleum industry bill.

You will permit me distinguish delegates and invited guests to touch on each of those developments presently.

The Amnesty Programme

A fact well known to all of us seated here is that oil workers were the main victims of the crisis in the Niger Delta.  Oil workers were those whose work were dislocated, whose employment was threatened by vandalization of equipment, pipeline and production.  Nigerian workers and their foreign counterparts were also the main victims of kidnapping, ransom taking and sadly in some instances death.

It was against the above background that the Congress had welcomed President Yar’Adua’s Amnesty Programme.  While mindful of the fact that there were also criminal elements involved in the Niger Delta crisis, we believe that the crisis arose from decades of neglect, and a sense of injustice and the abandonment of the area and its people by successive governments.

We welcome the initial successes of the amnesty programme and the additional funds being appropriated for the physical development of the region.

We call on all parties and especially the Federal and State governments in the region to consolidate the peace and development process there so that we do not have a relapse to the pre-Amnesty State of anarchy in the Niger Delta.  On our own part, we have also sort to play a facilitating role towards building sustainable peace in the region.  Last year we organized a Labour Summit on the Niger Delta crisis in Asaba.  I just returned from Benin-City yesterday, where I went to open a 3-day orientation programme for the Youth of Niger Delta with the theme beyond amnesty:  Towards the New role and Involvement of Youth in the Development of Niger Delta.

De-regulation of the Downstream Sector

Distinguished Comrades, recently campaign by the Federal Government for the deregulation of the Downstream Sector of the Petroleum industry has tended to portray Congress as an unreasonable obstacle to the progress and development of the downstream sector of the industry.  For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to restate for the umpteenth time that our opposition to the policy is bored out of our experience.  Every effort at reforming the downstream sector in the last ten years in particular and the period before this has meant increases in the Price of Petroleum Products.  We stand on the viewpoint that a country whose people have such a low disposable income as ours, and which is one of the biggest producers of oil in the world should not be afflicted with such calamity.

Furthermore, we feel that Nigerians should not be made to pay for the corruption which is endemic in the sector. Of course, our overdependence on road transportation in the absence of other forms of mass transportation makes dependence on fuel inevitable.

We are also strongly of the view that our policy of dependence on importation of Petroleum Products is not only unsustainable, it is unacceptable for an oil producing country with our size and population.

However, as a sign of goodwill, Labour as a major stakeholder has accepted to engage and dialogue with government.  Consequently, NEC of Congress has set up a 10-man Committee to look into government’s presentation with a view to advising Congress and organized Labour. Our hope is that at the end, we will reach an agreement that is best for our country and people.

The Petroleum Industry Bill

Our broad understanding of the Petroleum Industry Bill before the National Assembly is that it is a bodl attempt to update and consolidate all the existing legislations governing the petroleum industry into one.  It is also to re-organize NNPC into a viable National oil company that will operate in a commercial, competitive level rather than its present operational status as a government parastatal.  The bill also seeks to review upwards Government loyalties and taxes which oil companies pay for exploring oil in the country.

Understandably, the oil companies are unhappy about this.  The managing Director of Shell (Nigerian Exploration and Production Company).  Mr. Chike Onyejekwe was quoted the other day as saying that the new bill proposes “multiple royalties and fiscal terms that will make investments in deep water uneconomic…” And that this will “discourage companies from undertaking the aggressive exploration programmes under the 1993 production sharing contracts (PSCs)”.

We understand that the 1993 PSCs were so in favour of the oil companies that in some instances the Federal Government collected zero royalty from the oil companies.  The PIB is therefore a welcome opportunity to redress this unhealthy position.  We therefore wish to call on the National Assembly to expedite the passage of this bill.  Our political elites should take a leaf from the courage of other oil producing countries like Venezuela, Brazil, Norway to cite a few, in placing the interest of the country and its people over and above the quest for endless profit by multinational oil corporations.  The National Assembly must resist the temptation to dilute the bill in order to pander to the super exploitation of western oil companies.

Distinguish Delegates, invited guests, Comrades.  Let me conclude my remark by paying tribute to the leaders of this great union – past and present, who have ensured that the voice of the oil workers are in the fore front of our struggles.  I pay tribute to John Enas Dubre, who became deputy president of Congress; Frank Kokon, erstwhile General Secretary of this great union, who endured over Four Year detention under very harsh conditions in the 1990s in our struggle to enthrone democracy in Nigeria.  Joseph Akinlaja, who became General Secretary, after Kokori also was Deputy President of NLC, and many others.  To the outgoing President Comrade Peter Akpatason mni, my colleague in the NAC of NLC as trustee, leaving office after a maximum two terms of office must be very rewarding experience in deed.  Our General Secretary Elijah Okugbo, a peer of Kokori and Akinlaja has been an inspiring voice on the floor of our Central Working Committee.

I wish this conference a very fruitful deliberation and hope that the new leaders that will emerge at the end will take the union to greater heights.

I thank you for listening Solidarity for Ever