FG pegs fuel at N97 per litre •Labour suspends protests, continues strike

Written by Leon Usigbe Monday, 16 January 2012

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, this morning, in his second broadcast to the nation in two weeks, reduced the price of petrol from N141.00 to N97.00 per litre.
However, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar said President Jonathan agreed with labour to put on hold full deregulation, while labour meets with the Alfa Belgore Committee from today to resolve all issues within three days.
He claimed that security reports indicated that some people might hijack the mass protest which began last week, hence, labour decided to suspend the protests, but stated that the general strike would continue.

Full text of President Jonathan’s speech:
Dear Compatriots,
This is the second time in two weeks I will address you on the deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector. In the last seven days, the nation has witnessed a disruption of economic activities.  Although, the economic imperatives for the policy have been well articulated by government, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) went ahead to declare a nationwide strike.
There was also near-breakdown of law and order in certain parts of the country as a result of the activities of some persons or groups of persons who took advantage of the situation to further their narrow interests by engaging in acts of intimidation, harassment and outright subversion of the Nigerian state. I express my sympathy to those who were adversely affected by the protests.
At the inception of the deregulation policy, Government had set up the Justice Alfa Belgore Committee to liaise with Labour and other stakeholders to address likely grey areas in the policy, but despite all our efforts, Labour refused the option of dialogue and also disobeyed a restraining order of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.
However, following the intervention of the Leadership of the National Assembly, and other well-meaning Nigerians, Labour accepted to meet with government, but this yielded no tangible result.
It has become clear to government and all well-meaning Nigerians that other interests beyond the implementation of the deregulation policy have hijacked the protest. This has prevented an objective assessment and consideration of all the contending issues for which dialogue was initiated by government. These same interests seek to promote discord, anarchy, and insecurity to the detriment of public peace.
Government appreciates that the implementation of the deregulation policy would cause initial hardships and commends Nigerians who have put forth suggestions and credible alternatives in this regard. Government also salutes Nigerians who by and large, conducted themselves peacefully while expressing their grievances.
Let me assure you that government will continue to respect the people’s right to express themselves within the confines of the law and in accordance with the dictates of our democratic space.
Government will continue to pursue full deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector. However, given the hardships being suffered by Nigerians, and after due consideration and consultations with state governors and the leadership of the National Assembly, government has approved the reduction of the pump price of petrol to N97 per litre. The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has been directed to ensure compliance with this new pump price.
Government is working hard to reduce recurrent expenditure in line with current realities and to cut down on the cost of governance. In the meantime, government has commenced the implementation of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment projects: including the Federal Government- assisted mass transit programme which is already in place, and job creation for the youth.
Furthermore, the legal and regulatory regime for the petroleum industry will be reviewed to address accountability issues and current lapses in the Industry. In this regard, the Petroleum Industry Bill will be given accelerated attention. The report of the forensic audit carried out on the NNPC is being studied with a view to implementing the recommendations and sanctioning proven acts of corruption in the industry.
Let me assure Nigerians that this administration is irrevocably committed to tackling corruption in the petroleum industry as well as other sectors of the economy. Consequently, all those found to have contributed one way or the other to the economic adversity of the country will be dealt with in accordance with the law.
My dear compatriots, I urge you to show understanding for the imperatives of the adjustment in the pump price of petrol and give government your full support to ensure its successful implementation. I further appeal to Nigerians to go back to work and go about their normal duties as government has made adequate arrangements for the protection of life and property throughout the federation.
Government will not condone brazen acts of criminality and subversion. As President, I have sworn to uphold the unity, peace and order of the Nigerian State and by the grace of God, I intend to fully and effectively discharge that responsibility.  Let me add that we are desirous of further engagements with Labour. I urge our Labour leaders to call off their strike, and go back to work.
Nigeria belongs to all of us and we must collectively safeguard its unity.
Thank you. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Maintain subsidy removal policy or face our wrath -Niger Delta youths

Written by Sylvester Idowu, Warri Sunday, 15 January 2012 

 

A coalition of youths from all the Niger Delta ethnic nationalities in the oil bearing of Ondo, Edo , Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States, on Friday night in Warri, Delta State, insisted that President Goodluck Jonathan must retain the fuel subsidy removal policy or face their wrath.
They warned that they would go back to the creeks to stop the flow of oil from the region if he backs down on the subsidy removal decision.
The more than 1,000 youths stormed Warri Stadium as early as 8.00a.m carrying  placards to drum home their support for the withdrawal of petroleum subsidy by the Federal Government.
Some of the placards read thus: “Fuel subsidy removal is for our benefit, stop intimidating Jonathan”; “Niger Deltans support Jonathan”; “Tackle Boko Haram threat first”; “Northerners, leave Goodluck alone”; “We shall stop the flow of oil and gas from our backyard if Federal Government reverts to #65”;  “Labour, allow the policy to stay for our future benefit”; “We shall support Jonathan with our last blood,” and so on.
The protest was organised by Niger Delta youth activist and business guru, Mr. Ayiri Emami, and other youth leaders from the different ethnic nationalities in the state.
Addressing the crowd, Ayiri said the support for President Jonathan was based on the fact that people from the oil rich region had long been buying fuel at N200 for a long time as the various NNPC floating stations installed in some of the creeks have not sold as little as one litre of fuel to any one because no fuel has been supplied  it by the powers that be.
He, however, appealed to the President to ensure that savings from the removal be prudently spent on infrastructural development of the oil bearing communities,  and Nigeria in general.
He equally promised that if no evidence of judicious deployment of the monies realised was observed, they would go back to the streets in protest.

Nigeria Oil Shutdown ‘Last Resort’ as Strike Enters Second Week

By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Nigerian oil union Pengassan said it will only shut down oil output as “a last resort” in Africa’s top crude producer to give more time for negotiations with President Goodluck Jonathan’s government to end a strike now in the second week.

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, the country’s two biggest labor federations, called the strike to protest against higher fuel prices after the government said on Jan. 1 it was ending subsidies it said cost 1.2 trillion naira ($7.4 billion) last year.

The two federations have asked Pengassan “to defer the shutting down of oil production and export,” the union said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The “the postponement will enable labor and civil society groups explore ongoing consultations and negotiations in resolving the current nationwide strike.”

The work stoppage, which began Jan. 9, has limited trade in stocks and the naira, closed ports and banks and sparked street protests. The cost to sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest economy may be more than $1 billion a day, according to Gregory Kronsten, head of macroeconomic research at FBN Capital Ltd. in London.

While oil output and exports remain unaffected by the strike, Pengassan is poised “to execute immediately the systematic shutdown of oil production should the negotiation with the government break down,” the Lagos-based union said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

Daily Output

Nigeria pumped about 2.2 million barrels of oil a day last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At least 90 percent of Nigeria’s crude is produced by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, based in The Hague; Exxon Mobil Corp.; San Ramon, California- based Chevron Corp.; Total SA and Eni SpA in joint ventures with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.

“We’re holding the necessary consultations,” Labor Minister Chukwuemeka Wogu told reporters in Abuja yesterday. “We expect to have an agreement soon.”

The government’s offer to reduce fuel prices falls short of the unions’ demand for a full reversal and is unlikely to restore normalcy, the NLC and the TUC said in a joint statement yesterday. “For the avoidance of any doubt, the indefinite strikes, rallies and protests continue nationwide” as of Jan. 16.

Jonathan, who won a four-year term in April, had pledged to use savings to invest in power plants and roads in Africa’s most populous country, which is roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south.

Religious Violence

At the same time, he faces an increase in religious violence in parts of the north where he has declared a state of emergency and says Islamic militants pose a worse threat to the country than the 1967-70 civil war.

More than 85 people have died in bomb and gun attacks since Christmas Day on churches in Abuja and in the north that the authorities blame on Boko Haram, a militant Islamic group inspired by Afghanistan’s Taliban movement.

Gasoline prices in Nigeria, where two-thirds of the population of about 164 million live on less than $1.25 a day, had been capped at 65 naira a liter (0.3 gallon), leading to a shortage of investment in refineries that forced the West African nation to import about 70 percent of its fuel.

In opposing Jonathan’s reform, union leaders and protest groups have focused their criticisms on government waste and corruption, especially those associated with fuel imports and distribution.

Investigation of Payments

The president has approved the investigation of fuel-import payments and the prosecution of those found to have engaged in “any incidence of malfeasance, fraud, over-invoicing and related illegalities,” Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison- Madueke said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

“No matter what happens, the government’s credibility is seriously dented, and they’ll have to earn it back,” Bismarck Rewane, analyst and chief executive officer of Lagos-based Financial Derivatives Co., said by phone. “The reality is that this is the beginning of new dispensation. People will demand proper governance, people will demand honesty.”

--With assistance from Chris Kay in Abuja. Editors: Dulue Mbachu, Alex Devine, Chris Thompson

To contact the reporter on this story: Elisha Bala-Gbogbo in Abuja at ebalagbogbo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

Complicated

Nigerians fail to reach deal to avert strikes - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Nigerians fail to reach deal to avert strikes - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Alex Mouth hits location as he shoots two movies back to back (Complicated and After count)

Waking up everyday in New Rendezvous hotel Zone 6 to an eager and willing cast and crew kept me going on the set of Complicated... of-course that wasn't the name it was called during shoot. knowing fully well that you might give the original name of your movie during shoot and before you are done shooting on set some other producers would have released their own movie with your title.

Breakfast is served at 7am... another tasteless tea and four slices of bread. Sometimes I wonder if there was ever a budget for welfare or did the producer forget to add that to his list of responsibilities to the crew. Well, for me I don't eat in the mornings so I don't have much to worry.

At 8am I'm good to go on set with my crew. Ideally a pick-up car and driver waiting for me outside and a 'coaster bus' for my crew and equipment to the location. As for the 'coaster bus' you have to enter at own risk. There are enough sharp metals inside the bus to rip your jean no matter how careful you are, but its cheaper for the producer to hire at 10,000 naira per day and carries all the crew and equipment to set. (In the absence of my pick-up car) I am subjected to pick a cab to set everyday. (call that humility? naaaaa I was just trying not to complicate an already problematic set).

Talking about the producer is a waste of time because he is more backward than an illiterate (I just heard he is a graduate...WOW!!!) the last time he was part of a movie set as a production manager was in 2008, in 2011 and he has been able to convince the executive producer to part with millions of naira to shoot an action movie.


I already said that his lapses will not be a distraction to me so i was completely bent on finishing this movie and shooting it to my best of perfection. Why would the producer even come and be telling me to shoot the movie "any how".

The movie was meant to be shot in 14 days gosh!!! i told this man that their is no way you will shoot an action movie, 120 scenes with addendum, 17 crew of which 10 needs to be tutored on what to do (just because the producer was bent on saving cost for himself underline the word HIMSELF because the producer was willing to use the best hand the industry has to offer) using a canon DSLR 7D for 14 days. this is me being pushed to perform miracles. I really wish i can analyze some of the crew members. i know you would be asking why did i accept to work with some of the crew he brought? well i didn't, i already walked out of the set 4 times and had to return because i just needed to prove a point ( that I can work under any condition).

As he said, Alex Mouth i know you can shoot these movie for me do it now. Anyway we have exhausted the 14 days target sorry i meant to say we have wasted the 14 days target because the producer preferred to bring it the actor one after the other (i don't have a problem with that, just that he fails to communicate to the next artiste when he is meant to come into town and shoot, so the actors most times are caught unaware and they end up disappointing me), first Olu Jacobs came in a week before his schedules and my schedule automatically changed. i instantly didn't have a schedule any more. Rather than know what to shoot the next day i was lost at what scene to shoot next. Jim Iyke had to disappoint because the producer didn't tell him he was meant to be on set the next week so two days before Jim was to be on set that's when the producer tried reaching him, making us settle for Yemmi Blaq who nailed the role.

did i say that i was shooting back to back? the second movie was to start  two days after i finished the first meaning i was to move to the next set on the 16th. well this is day 14 i still have 15 scenes yet to be shot.... can i continue these talk later please?

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vEvX2QtA18