By Victor AHIUMA-YOUNG

UMBRELLA body  for  employers in the  country;  Nigeria  Employers  Consultative Association,  NECA,  and  organised  labour  in  the  nation’s  Petroleum  industry,  are singing  discordant  tunes  over  the  government planned privatisation of the four public refineries.

Recall the Federal Government through the Minister for Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, announced that the four public refineries would be privatized in 2014.While arguing for the privatization of the refineries, Director-General of NECA, Mr. Segun shinowo, insisted that it was the only way the refineries would perform optimally in the long run.

He recalled that President Olusegun Obasanjo led-government privatized the refineries in the last days of the government, but the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua government reviewed the privatization.

According to him, “if we had gone that way, the whole issue of our dependency on foreign source for fuel supply, would have to a large extent been addressed effectively. So the same courage and determination which this government has demonstrated in privatizing the electricity sector, it can extend it to the refineries, so that we can save national resources that are going to turn around maintenance, TAM, every now and then for which we have not actually got appropriate benefits. I will want Jonathan’s administration to consider that as equally a worthwhile legacy to bequeath to Nigeria.”

Whether the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, won’t address the issue of the refineries, Oshinowo asked, “How long have we been on PIB? Why can’t the privatization of those refineries acquire a life of their own outside PIB? Which one will be faster to handle, privatizing outside the PIB or waiting for the PIB that has been on the table for God knows how long? I think we have to face certain serious policy issues in this country. For us and talking from my personal perspective, I do not see any reason why government should still be involved in those refineries.”

However, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and its Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, counterpart rejected planned privatisation of the refineries.

In separate reactions, both unions faulted the planned privatisation, and urged government to instead of outright sale, the Federal Government should adopt the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, model with the National Oil Company, NOC, as owners of the four refineries holding a substantial minority share, while core investors/local participation hold the working majority while the staff, trade unions, and the host communities hold minority shares.

Specifically, NUPENG wondered why government would suddenly wake up to talk about selling the four public refineries in 2014, warning that any decision on the refineries without the involvement of organized labour would be resisted with everything at labour’s disposal.

In a statement through its General Secretary, Mr. Isaac Aberare, the union said it “is worried about the sudden proposal by the federal government to sell the nation’s four refineries next year. It warns that caution must be exercised in the proposed sale as all the Stakeholders must be involved, if the plan will see the light of the day.

NUPENG states that the sale of the refineries is not the solution to the massive importation of petroleum products into the country, but the problem is government’s blunt refusal to do the Turn-Around-Maintenance of these refineries over the years to make them function optimally. It stresses that a lot of intrigues, power play, selfish interest to protect the cabal importing fuel had come to play, leaving the equipment in the refineries to rot away.”

The Union argued that the nation’s refineries were organizations in the commanding height of the nation’s economy which should remain in the control of government for security and strategic reasons and should not be allowed to be sold to government cronies and front men, as it had happened in the power sector.

According to the statement “NUPENG is of the belief that more refineries should be established , in the model of the NLNG strategic partnering and more investors given tax holidays and land to enable them construct new ones just like the initiative of the Dangote refinery, instead of trying to sell the nation’s assets as scraps to their people.

We warn that the proposed plan should be done with the utmost care, because the Union will not fold its hands to allow its members to be thrown into the unemployment market that is already saturated. It stated that it is the training and re-training given these oil workers over the years that have even kept these refineries going at their low capacity utilisation.”

“NUPENG and PENGASSAN must be involved in wide consultations on issues like this before going on air to pronounce their sales, in order to avoid industrial disharmony. We want the government to focus on how to curb oil theft in the pipelines and consider our proposal for the creation of a Pipelines Protection Agency that will be fully saddled with the protection of the nation’s over 3,570 trunk lines crisis-crossing the landscape. NUPENG also calls for the speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that is before the National Assembly to address these challenges facing the oil and gas sector to bring about transparency and accountability and stop chasing the shadows.