ONE of the conditions that Organised Labour has always insisted on for the removal of fuel subsidy is ensuring that we resume full domestic refining of petroleum products. It has always argued, correctly, that ending subsidy while we still import refined products will expose the ordinary people to the sharks that infest our petroleum products market.

Unfortunately, due to corruption and incompetence, political leadership has failed to summon the will and patriotism to revive our refineries over the years. Billions, if not trillions of naira, have been wasted on turnaround maintenances with very little result. As the subsidy burden became unbearable, the Federal Government dumped the load on the shoulders of the masses.

The government of President Bola Tinubu responded to the outcries of the people by promising palliatives which, at the end, will only benefit a few Nigerians. There is no palliative measure that can touch all Nigerians the way petrol subsidy did.

It does not make sense blaming Organised Labour for its inability to force government to perform a non-existent miracle. Organised Labour exists primarily to fight for the rights and welfare of its members, the working classes. Not even all workers are benefiting from spoils of Labour struggles such as increment of the National Minimum Wage. The states and private enterprises have increasingly fallen short of implementing them due to economic realities.

What it also means is that Organised Labour is becoming less relevant to the non-working classes because of its limited ability to force government to initiate all-inclusive palliative measures. Labour is very mindful of its own vulnerabilities, with the industrial court always deciding disputes in favour of government and threatening its leadership with contempt charges.

To recover some of its relevance with the people, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Unions Congress, TUC, should retool their demands beyond palliative measures and wage increases. They should exert pressure for the early completion of the government-owned refineries, the establishment of new ones and the compulsory supply of crude oil to the private modular refineries by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, NNPC Ltd.

Why has Labour kept silent while the recently-completed modular refineries have been unconscionably starved of crude supply?

Secondly, we urge Labour to demand for the subsidy of the cost of crude being allocated to our local refineries to enable them supply to the domestic markets at affordable prices. This is the subsidy we need. It is a subsidy model that will benefit all Nigerians. There is no greater, more inclusive palliative than that. We practised this model in the past until our local refineries were sabotaged.

This model of subsidy will enable Nigerians enjoy their oil. Any refinery that insists only on refining exclusively for international market prices should be made to pay punitive taxes.