NAAPE backs hike in petrol price, says reforming subsidy impossible task

 

At a time when the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, is threatening to ground operations at the nation’s main airport to protest against the hike in the price of petrol, the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, NAAPE, has backed Federal Government’s decision “to fully deregulate the downstream sector of the Oil and Gas”, adding that it shall not ask its members to observe the strike called by the NLC.

This was contained in a statement issued on Thursday by the National President of NAAPE, Comrade Isaac Balami, which noted that the fuel subsidy scheme is extremely prone to corruption such that attempting to “to reform it was like attempting to reform Satan (devil) – an impossibility task.” It, therefore, noted that the best option is for it to be scrapped.
It partly reads, “Our advice to the Government is to use the money that will be saved, to put infrastructures that will create jobs for Nigerians in place, ensuring that our refineries are working optimally and encouraging local production to ameliorate the temporary hardship the citizens are going through.

“And for us in the Aviation industry, we urge the Government to begin the refining of the Aviation fuel popularly known as Jet A1 from the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refinery. This will go a long way in reducing the cost of operation and will also reduce the cost of flight ticket, as fuel alone constitutes about 30 to 40% of the cost of operation.”
The body, however, called on the federal government to equally look into the Issue of National Carrier as promised or strengthen the local domestic carriers as suggested by various stake holders, stressing that one of the above needs to be quickly done, “as the industry is currently in a stand still.”
Reiterating its unalloyed support for the novel and bold decision taken by the Federal Government to secure the future of Nigeria, NAAPE said, “We also want to assure the general public that we shall not ask our Pilots and Aircraft Engineers to go on strike, hence as far as we are concerned, Nigerians should go ahead with their travel plans. The truth is that the industry itself is already being affected by the current challenges in the country and any move to short down the Aviation Sector will lead to a total collapse of the Sector.”