Union Orders Shutdown of Export Terminals
THE Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has directed its members in export terminals and production platforms to shut down operations from yesterday in continuation of the strike to protest the last increase in fuel prices and sale of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries.
Labour said all production platforms and export terminals in the Escravos flow stations operated by Chevron were shut down yesterday. It also alleged plan by the Federal Government to procure "a black market injunction" to abort the on-going strike, and asked the judiciary not to allow itself to be used against the popular will of the Nigerian people.
Meanwhile, 40 goods-laden ships are now stranded outside the Lagos ports on account of the on-going strike. The ships will pay $10,000 daily for each day the strike lasts.
PENGASSAN secretariat in a message to all branch chairmen in the upstream sector yesterday said: To all PENGASSAN branch chairmen in producing companies, please ensure that all export terminals and production platforms are shut down by 12 midnight today (yesterday) in compliance with the directive that the strike must be total."
At a press conference in Lagos, after monitoring people's compliance with the strike on the second day, Chairman of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Lagos State chapter, Comrade Abubakar Sulaimon, said organised labour and its allies were resolved to continue with the strike until government reduced the pump price of petrol to N65 per litre.
Comrade Sulaimon who is also the Lagos Zonal Chairman of PENGASSAN, said: "In the oil and gas sector, the strike is in two phases. Wednesday, all downstream operations were shut down. As we speak, there is no loading in any depot. From Mosimi, Ejigbo to all others. In the upstream, the shutting down has begun and within the next three days, it would be completed.
As we speak now, Escravos flow stations are already shut down. It is unfortunate that our leaders are making us go through this road, the road of hardship. Today, the five major producers in the upstream are producing about 2.2 million barrels of crude daily, while the minors are producing close to one million barrels. Together, the nation is producing over three million crude barrels per day.
Negotiations Break Down, Unions Dig In for the Long Haul
Nigerian unions dug in for a long battle with the government on Friday after the collapse of talks on the third day of a general strike over fuel prices.
Unions threatened to extend the strike, which has already crippled most sectors of the economy, to essential services such as water and power.
Authorities in Africa's biggest oil producer said they would no longer turn a blind eye to illegal union tactics such as blockades and harassment of people who wanted to work.
Oil officials feared an extended protest could lead to a shut down of oilfields and tanker terminals, which have so far survived the protest in the world's eighth largest exporter.
Talks with the government broke down shortly before dawn on Friday as unions insisted on the reversal of a 10-naira (8-cent) increase in the price of petrol.
The government stuck to its offer to reduce the price by five naira.
Informal contacts continued, but neither side appeared willing to give ground.
"We expect before Monday this issue will be resolved, otherwise the strike continues," said Abdulwahed Omar, head of the Nigeria Labour Congress, an umbrella union body.
Brent crude oil futures rose 95 cents to $71.17 a barrel, partly on fears of further disruptions in Nigeria, where militant attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta have already curbed output by a quarter.
The dispute has ended a honeymoon for newly inaugurated President Umaru Yar'Adua, who inherited the highly unpopular price increase from his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, when he took office on May 29.
Streets in the central business district of the main city Lagos were deserted, but for a few small groups of gangsters and street hawkers selling consumer goods.
Government offices and most private businesses, including banks and markets, were closed.
Hospital patients left their beds to visit traditional healers because doctors were on strike.
TERMINALS LOADING
Most oil workers complied with the strike order, but oil companies maintained exports by replacing union staff with management.
"So far we don't have any problem. All our terminals are loading," said Aminu Baba-Kusa, head of crude oil marketing at state company Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.
Contingency plans could keep plants operating for a matter of days, but companies would be forced to begin closing them down if the strike extended much beyond a week, industry sources said.
Unions issued a statement threatening to interrupt power and water supplies unless the government gave in.
Mike Okiro, acting inspector-general of police, said after a meeting with the president: "My men have been instructed to arrest any group of labour activists or leaders trying to shut down any public utilities."
Opposition party Action Congress urged Yar'Adua to back down.
Many Nigerians supported the strike because most lived in poverty and the fuel price increase had raised prices of most basic goods. They viewed fuel subsidies as one of the few benefits they received from a notoriously corrupt government.
The general strike was preceded by a separate stoppage by road tanker drivers, which caused a nationwide fuel shortage that has strengthened the unions' hand.
Public transport collapsed and most filling stations no longer had fuel to sell.
Government Threatens Sanctions Against Unions (This Day)
The Federal Government has threatened to invoke the relevant labour laws if workers continue with their indefinite strike action, which has paralysed business activities in the country.
The government, which appeared to have finally run out of patience in its quest to end the 4-day old nationwide labour strike, warned after Friday's negotiations in Abuja with members of the organized labour, that failed to yield the much needed result, it would henceforth implement the relevant aspects of the labour laws that deal with strikes and lock-outs.
The threat to come down hard on labour was followed with a warning by the Acting Inspector Gen-eral of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, who said his men would not hesitate to arrest any labour leader that atte-mpts to disrupt the smooth operations of essential public utilities.
Worried by the deadlock, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), yesterday also offered to mediate in the crisis. The NBA President, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, is expected to lead a delegation to meet with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Baba-gana Kingibe in Abuja today. A member of the NBA delegation, Carol Ajie said it was imperative that contacts are made "to avert further lose of resources to our ailing economy and the untold hardship on the masses."
Kingibe who spoke to newsmen after the early morning negotiations yesterday said the government had resolved to do everything within its powers to ensure that Nigerians live a normal life, despite the disruptions caused by the labour strike.
"The Government will now consider all other options, which it has so far been reluctant to apply in ensuring that labour laws are fully respected, that the laws governing strikes are fully respected and enforced and we would ask and urge our country men and women to bear with the obvious disruption for the time being," he said.
The SGF, while reacting to the outcome of over 9-hours of talks with labour yesterday, regretted that after such excruciating hours of deliberations, the two parties could not arrive at any major break through.” It appears labour is bent on continuing the strike and government will put in everything it can to ensure that those citizens who want to exercise their fundamental freedom to go to work, do so without molestation and that petrol stations and depots are secured,” he said.
Kingibe alleged that there were efforts during the labour strike to disrupt the normal functioning of the depots and that there were harassment of those who wanted to work.
According to him, workers were chased out of the office while some offices generators were locked up and their keys made away with. "These kinds of acts which are clearly against the laws will no longer be tolerated and we will try as best as possible to bring life back to normal as soon as Labour is willing to cooperate. I do not think that Nigerian people deserve to be held hostage by a group purporting to represent the people's wish as indefinitely," the SGF said.
An obviously worried SGF expressed regrets that despite government's engagement with the labour which lasted from 6pm to about 2 am, not much progress was made to end the strike.
Kingibe said while the government had made some concessions by reversing the increases in VAT and pump prices of Petroleum products, labour appeared not ready to let go its insistence on the complete reversal of petrol price to the old price of N65 per litre.
The SGF said the government's refusal to grant the complete reversal of petrol price incr-ease was based on financial estimates which clearly show that the country's budget for 2007 cannot absorb the huge expenditure from the extra subsidy.
"To pay the 15% salary increase, which were unpaid from January to March, would cost government some N18.3bn and this has not been budgeted for, " he said, adding that if government were to foot the bill and remove the N5 fuel price hike, it would negatively impact the entire budget for the year.”
Kingibe said that as an alternative, the government had proposed to labour the setting up of a joint committee to understudy the mechanism applied for the fuel price increment and to recommend whether such new price is tenable or not.
He said on their part, labour had insisted that of all the items they presented to the table, must be met. “Negotiations do not work that way,” he stated.
"You do not go to negotiate on the bases that you must have 100% of your wishes met. So on this basis, it is with deep regret that the government would continue to appeal to labour to consider the plight of the Nigerian people, to consider the jeopardy in which the situation has put the Nigerian economy and ceased the opportunity of the options placed before them where objectively, this matter of N5 difference can be resolved by both sides looking at the figures and arrive at a meaningful resolution."
However, the labour representatives, who came out of the meeting threatening to extend the strike to more sensitive areas of the economy such as the oil export terminals and the electricity sector, insisting the government had refused to appreciate the plight of the suffering masses by sticking to its position on the increase.
The National President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Comrade Peter Esele said the meeting was not successful because the federal government team came to the meeting not prepared to make concessions.
"There was no shifting of grounds by both parties and this led to the collapse of negotiations," he said.
The TUC President said his group and NLC would meet yesterday evening to adopt fresh strategies for engaging the government over the contentious issue.
THISDAY gathered that the meeting of NLC and TUC was as a result of tremendous pressure on the labour leadership to consider calling off the strike.
Esele confirmed this, saying the labour movement has been under intense lobby by some persons to accept government's proposal in order to end the national crisis.
In the meantime, Okiro emphatically stressed that labour leaders do not have the right to stop workers on essential services from reporting to work and performing their duties.
Okiro, who gave the warning while speaking with State House Correspondents shortly after meeting with President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, yesterday said to ensure that the organised labour does not have its way, security personnel have been deployed to arrest any labour leader that attempts to stop workers from providing essential services.
“We have found out that some labour leaders are stopping those who went to work. In law, there are some people engaged in essential services that are not supposed to go on strike, but labour leaders are going about stopping them from going to work. In as much as we feel that labour leaders have the right to go on strike, they have no right to stop those who want to work,” the IG stated.
He added: “Security men have been told to go around and if any body is seen picketing, or stopping those who are supposed to work from going to work, they should be arrested and the law will take its course. If a labour leader goes to somebody who is supposed to be on essential duties, who is not supposed to be on strike, and goes to disturb him. For example goes to a PHCN technician to disrupt him from working, it is an offence; he will be arrested and dealt in accordance with the law.
Also yesterday, the former President of NLC and Action Congress (AC) gubernatorial candidate in Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, paid a solidarity visit to the labour house in Abuja.
Oshiomhole during the visit debunked allegations that the NLC was playing politics with the current strike.
Oshiomhole during his visit to the labour house said: “Though, we may all have different challenges at different point in time, but the bottomline is that we all mean well. Nigerians mean well for their country and the organised labour as always been on the patriotic side.
“We are all in it together, if it works, we all have collective benefits and we all want it to work so that we can have something to smile.”
Treatment of Indian Hostages not Bad
A petrochemical engineer from Surat in Gujarat who was abducted in Nigeria has said that he was yet to decide whether he will continue to work in that country.
"I would like to stay with my family for at least two months. Then I will decide about the future," said Patel, who reached his home in Surat on Thursday.
Patel, working for oil exploration firm Indorama, was kidnapped with nine others by armed rebels from their residential quarters in Nigeria's oil rich town of Port Harcourt on May 31. They were released after 15 days.
His wife Hetal hoped Patel stays back.
"We hope he will not go back to Nigeria," said the mother of two.
Patel said the kidnappers treated all the Indians well.
"They killed two guards posted at the gate of our quarters and kidnapped us. They took us to the beach of Port Harcourt by a pick-up van. From where we were taken to an inhabited island in boats," Patel told reporters.
"We were kept in tents on the island. The kidnappers told us we have been kidnapped for money. If we try to run away we will be killed. Otherwise, we will be safe," he said. According to Patel, the hostages were given food three times a day.
"Two children were also kidnapped with us. On our demand, they provided generators and fans for the children as it was hot," he said.
Asari not Treated as Well as Indian Hostages (Vanguard)
The leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo gained his freedom last week after twenty months and twenty five days in detention. In this interview with journalists in Port-Harcourt, he spoke extensively on his prison experience and other sundry issues.
How has it been with you since your release?
As you know, I came back on Saturday and after the reception in Port Harcourt, I went to Buguma. Then we went to Obuama where I was accepted into the Obuama Council of Chiefs. Then, I came back to Buguma, my father’s place. My mother’s people also made me a chief. And now my name has changed. I am now Alhaji Mujahid Abubakar Dokubo Asari Edbali. In Kalabari land where I am from if you become a chief, you will take the title and the name of the chieftaincy house where you are becoming a chief. The house in which I became a chief is known as Edbali.
The Amanyanabo of Kalabari, His Majesty, King Theophilus Amachree, the 11th also gave me a title, “Sebromabo”,meaning saviour of the nation. The nation, “Sebromabo” maybe the Ijaw nation. So, as the day proceeded, against my will, I was admitted into the highest Kalabari cult. I was initiated into the Kalabari Ekini Society, which is the highest Kalabari mystery organization.
What was your prison experience like?
Let me start by saying (that) I will fight General Olusegun Obasanjo until he is brought to justice for the gross abuse of human rights and inefficiency that were widespread in his government. In eight years of Obasanjo’s government, there is nothing to show for it, no roads, infrastructure dead.
In the cell in which I was kept for ten months in solitary confinement, you can’t find mosquitoes, there were no cockroaches, no living being, it was complete darkness when they took light. That’s where I was kept for almost ten months because 30th of June would have made me ten months in solitary confinement.
In that environment where I was detained, many people went mad. At least, I know four people that went mad and started stripping themselves naked. They did all sorts of things, using their faeces to throw at people, to smear the wall. I was kept alone. I was treated like an animal. Food was passed through metal gauge to me. I ate and gave it back to them.
In my upbringing, I’ve never seen poverty and suffering. I’ve always had more than enough and the best of all things. But General Olusegun Obasanjo thought he could break my spirit and every morning when he came up, he found me that I was very strong. I was doing my exercises and reading my Koran 24 hours a day.
If we don’t bring General Obasanjo to justice, whatever we are doing, whatever government that had come in place, if we don’t bring him to justice, there is no way this entity called Nigeria can move forward. A man who invested N1.3 trillion in the power sector, 60 times more than what had been invested all the period of the existence of the entity called Nigeria, he could not generate up to 3,000 megawatts of power. I say he destroyed Nigeria.
I am not a youth. I became 43 years on the 1st of June this year. I was born in 1964. On the issues that we are canvassing, let us look at it vis-a-vis other nations. In Canada, they have Quebec, they are fighting for self determination. Nobody has gone there to arrest people and lock them up and occupy Quebec. Quebecois have carried out three plebiscites to see whether they could leave Canada and each time, the plebiscites would be defeated and they are still in Canada.
In South Africa, there is agitation among the Zulus for a Zulu nation. Nobody has gone to arrest Zulu leaders. They talk of apartheid. But myself and Uwazurike have never been given fair hearing. Judges were imported. Judicial processes were manipulated. The Nigerian entity is a rotten entity.
What sort of justice is this? That there can be justice for some and not for others. But that there cannot be justice for Alamieyeseigha .There can be no justice for Mujahid Dokubo Asari? They said Alamieyeseigha stole money, accusing Alamieyeseigha, you are a thief. You are stealing your people’s money. Now, other people who are thieves are going out and they are patting them on the back and say return property. And they kept Alamieyeseigha for almost two years in prison and the man is dying presently. As we are talking, Alamieyeseigha is having a heart by-pass surgery in Dubai. Obasanjo’s policy was that he’s going to teach us a lesson and nothing would happen. They killed Boro, Saro-Wiwa, bombed Odi, Odioma nothing happened. We would kill Asari and nothing will happen.
People are saying I shouldn’t talk but we will talk. We will strike, fight. My mother died at 28, I am alive today, I am 43 years old. So, if I die today, it makes no difference. The issues we are talking about are fundamental and any lover of truth and justice will know that we have been unjustly treated. Look at Port Harcourt, in 20 years from now, Port Harcourt will be the same. I was in detention in Abuja, I came out I couldn’t recognize Abuja. As we were leaving, I asked my chief, ‘is this Abuja Area 1?’ I couldn’t recognize it again. They were building bridges on land while they cannot build bridges over river. People say Asari talks anyhow. The issues at stake are fundamental. We have inalienable rights. It is our fundamental right to own our land and this is not negotiable. It will never be given up.
Ten million collaborators can be with them (government) but only ten people who refuse to collaborate with them will have victory because we stand on the side of truth and justice. People say ‘don’t talk, you are old enough, go and enjoy yourself; you have 11 children’ and I laugh. What is enjoyment when my people are suffering? I am not a poor man. They wanted to bribe me. I was told they would give me oil bloc.
I asked them: ‘When you give me oil bloc, what about my people?’ I rejected it. I was offered Director of Youths in NDDC, I rejected. If it’s money I am looking for, there is so much money in the creeks. I don’t need to go to Abuja to make money. Obasanjo decided to lay pipeline to build Olokola LNG, while Brass LNG is comatose. We are going to see whether it will work.
If there is justice, we will allow them to build refinery anywhere. We will allow them to build LNG anywhere. But when there is no justice, somebody will tell me that the oil which flows from the North is sedimentary. The time when they will bring their armies to frighten us is over. You cannot crush the Ijaw people, the Niger Delta people. The only way these problems can be solved is to convene a sovereign national conference where the mistakes that have hounded us since 1914 will be re-examined.
In Ijaw land, Kalabari signed a separate treaty with Britain. Bonny, Nembe also signed separate treaties with Britain. So, Nigerians should sit to talk on the way forward. Where did we decide to become Nigeria? That document you called a constitution is a fraud. Open the constitution, it says people of Nigeria.
You and I know that there was no time we sat down anywhere to fashion out that constitution. And they say “we the people of Nigeria.” When did “we the people” sit down? So, from the very beginning the constitution was dubious and fraudulent. That document cannot stand the test of time. One day, it must surely crumble. What we are saying is that we don’t want bloodshed, let us sit down and talk.
What is your stand on hostage-taking?
We come to the inhuman practice of hostage-taking that has gotten into our struggle which is unknown. We must condemn it in all ramifications. If we want people to do justice to us, we must do justice to others. The people we are taking hostage and keeping against their will, is it justice? They are businessmen. They called them to come and do business anywhere. But they too have their blames. We say ‘leave our land’ but they are trespassing on our land. We say go, they say the Nigerian military is there to protect them. They should leave our land, they should go home peacefully. When we have resolved at the Sovereign National Conference, they should come back.
If Ijaw people say we want to be Nigerians because I have children from Ibibio land, I used to have a Fulani wife, so I would not want to miss these people. Ninety percent of my friends are Muslims, amongst them, 80 percent are Yoruba. And the others are scattered in other tribes and nations. I can say because of my children, I want to be a Nigerian.
Hostage-taking is evil. It has brought easy wealth, laziness, criminality in our midst. It has destroyed the moral fabric of the Ijaw man. What I am saying is this, you are Igbo, Yoruba, you have all assisted in releasing me. But if you stand for justice, there is a legal maxim that says he who owns the land owns everything. And the legal maxim is used in Nigerian courts. If they want to acquire oil rich land in Niger Delta, one square meter is 15 kobo. But in Abuja , one plot can be up to N100 million. Arid land will be more expensive than resource filled land! They make laws, so one square mile of oil rich land is 15 kobo! What sort of injustice is this? When there is oil spillage, I have never seen, I have never shared oil spillage money and I will never share. I am not a fisherman. I don’t have nets and traps.
This is what they do, they say economic tree is 5 kobo, debt 2 kobo. This now force people to build many shrines, claiming that their gods have been polluted, then they will pay them. Before, there’s no oil spillage that Shell will pay you N20 to N30 million.
Now, there are the people they call militants. That word has been abused, I don’t even know the meaning of that word. It’s an insult to call me that. Me, I am not a militant. I am an Ijaw nationalist in the Ijaw struggle. Look, nobody should call me a militant. I am not militating against anything. So, for me, the issues, if you want hostage taking to end, you must do the right thing.
Then the oil companies. As far as I’m concerned, the corporate social responsibility of an organization is to pay its taxes. Why should you ask them to go and construct roads? That is the duty of the government that collected tax from them. No company has any corporate social responsibility other than that provided for by law of that land. And you cannot force them. You see the whole African presidents go to G-8 meeting and be begging for money.
They are not ashamed. All those African leaders going to G-8 to beg should be disowned by their people.
While Nigeria is selling public corporations, ARAMCO is buying the world. Indorama is buying our petrochemical plant. Indonesian company is coming to buy our petrochemical. World Bank imperialists are telling us to sell our national patrimony. America is now putting in place new laws to prevent ARAMCO from ravaging them. United Arab Emirates is buying everywhere. Their companies are buying everywhere. The world is changing.
The Arabs are using the petro dollars to upturn the world. Malaysia is constructing the world’s longest pipeline. Somebody will be talking and then you journalists will be praising them. Why should Indorama come here and buy our petrochemical and the same world Bank will not tell Indonesia to sell Indorama? Why should ARAMCO go to United states and buy refinery? Why should Yugoslavia be building refineries all over the world? Do you know where all the PMS we use comes from? Sometimes, when I sit down and hear them talk, I say, these people, where did they get their professorship, PhDs from? Do they think we are all fools?
Everyone of you has a responsibility to stand up. It is not Ijaw matter now. It is what Nigeria has that these men are selling. For me, as you know, I’m not as educated and articulate as you. I say things as raw as I see them because truth is not in black and white. Truth has only one colour which is white.
Concerning my release, they said they released me on bail. I was not in court when they did that. I never knew I was granted bail. I was inside my cell when they came and said I had been granted bail, and that I should go. I said: The judge don die? They say im dey alive. I say, wetin make una grant me bail now? They say they don grant me bail. I say no problem. I went to the IGP, I asked him, wetin happen, they say I’ve been granted bail.
If I am not in court and you say I should not attend political rallies, I am not a politician. I am not a PDP man or AC man, that I’ll come and address political rally. If my people come, I’ll talk with them. And in talking with them, if it is a rally, so be it.
What’s your view on the new political leadership at the centre, particularly with Goodluck, an Ijaw man as Vice-President?
On the issue of Goodluck Jonathan, because I know you will ask me, I am 100 percent in support of him if his activities will be in the interest of the Ijaw and Niger Delta people. But if he goes there to sit down, them say kill us and them come kill us, then I no go fit support am. We no go accept that one. As I came out, I found out that Jonathan has overwhelming support among Ijaw people. Ijaw people feel that for the first time, an Ijaw man has been placed in such a high position. Then who am I if I say I am an Ijaw leader to go against him? My own personal opinion in this issue does not matter.
If the opinion of my people is overwhelming in support of an individual in this position, then I will have to join the majority. And for that purpose, Jonathan cannot bribe me because the money with which he will bribe me is my money. So, I support Goodluck for as long as he is doing good.
Now that he is starting, I’ll encourage him with all my powers and all that I can muster for him to succeed. Since I came, I’d been talking to people. When I came out, some people took some hostages in Schlumberger. They met me and I said I was tired.
They met me again and said, ‘na we take the Schlumberger Oporobos. So, I said na una take the Schlumberger Oporobos, they say yes. I said, wetin una want, they said call Schlumberger make we release the people, make them go because you don come. So, I called Schlumberger, they said the man talking has no authority, he will call somebody else tomorrow, I said I’ll call him.
When I told him that I’m Asari, he said are you sure you are Asari or you are one of those people?
I said there’s no way I can convince you I am Asari but I am telling you that I am. And these people told me that they have your staff. This is the stage hostage taking has reached in the region. What I am going to do, I’ll assist but it has gone beyond what an individual can change overnight because the money don sweet for people mouth. So, anytime dem see oyinbo, dem go catch am and if them see you sef dem fit catch. Because dem no say money fit come.
So, these are the issues that I want to raise. I believe that if Yar’Adua is sincere to have a nation that will be strong and compete with other nations in the comity of nations, he should do the right thing by convening a Sovereign National Conference.
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