– President Buhari approved the
appointment of Mohammed Lawan Buba as chairman of the Petroleum Products
Pricing Regulatory Agency
– The PPPRA board has the
statutory role of determining and fixing the prices of petroleum products and
has not been constituted for over four years
– The federal government set up a
16-man committee to negotiate with Nigerian Labour Congress on the increase in
fuel price
– The presidency said the
committee was constituted to work out modalities on ways to resolve the issues
raised by the organised labour
– The committee is expected to
submit its report within two weeks of their inauguration
Alhaji Mohammed Lawan Buba, a
former Director General of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), has
been appointed as chairman of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency
(PPPRA).
This was announced on Wednesday,
May 25, by Engineer Babachir David Lawal, the Secretary to the Government of
the Federation after a meeting between a federal government delegation and the
organized labour, Daily Trust reports.
Babachir Lawal said Buhari approved the appointment of Alhaji Mohammed Lawan Buba as PPPRA chairman |
Lawal said the appointment of
Buba, a former group executive director of commercial & investment at
Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) was approved by President Muhammadu
Buhari.
The federal government also
constituted a 16-man committee to address issues that necessitated the three-day
strike embarked on by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) after the increase in
the pump price of petrol, Daily Trust reports.
He said the meeting was called to
review various issues which emanated from the the increased fuel price, such as
the minimum wage, implementation of the N500bn palliative in the 2016 budget
and work out ways of resolving the issue on new pump price of petrol.
“The committee is to discuss issues concerning
the minimum wage, to advice on possible modalities of working out ways to
arrive at a compromise.
“Secondly, we have agreed that
the 16-man committee will look at the issue of implementation and the
allocation of resources on the half a trillion naira palliatives budgeted for
by the Federal Government,” the SGF said.
After three days, NLC suspended
its indefinite strike to demand reversal of the pump price of petrol from N145
to N86.50 on Sunday, May 22.
Labour agreed to negotiate with
the federal government on the review of minimum wage for workers, electricity
tariff and constitution of the board of the PPMC among other issues.
Responding to questions from newsmen, the NLC
president, Comrade Ayuba Wabba who led other labour leaders to the meeting with
the federal government, said it was successful.
Also speaking, the Minister of
Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said the 16-man committee was
expected to work out the framework to constitute the committee for the minimum
wage review which was a tripartite negotiation arrangement.
“I chair the committee and we are
waiting for the NLC to forward their nominees so that the committee can be
inaugurated sometime next week,” he said.
The removal of fuel subsidy and
an increase in fuel price did not go down well with many Nigerians. Popular
Lagos based pastor and Buhari’s running mate in the 2011 presidential election,
Tunde Bakare, accused the President Buhari-led federal government of not
consulting widely before removing subsidy from petrol and the subsequent hike
in fuel price.
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