The National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) has expressed support for the position of the Federal Government to fully deregulate the downstream sector of the Oil and Gas.
“This step is in the right direction and is long overdue, but its better late than never,” the union said in a statement by its National President, Comrade Isaac Balami.
The union further commended the Federal Government for what it called a bold decision, saying that the subsidy scheme was extremely fraud-prone.
“Trying to reform it was like attempting to reform Satan (devil) – an impossible task. It was therefore best to scrap it.”
Begin Refining
NAAPE further advised the government to ensure that money that would be saved was put into infrastructures that would create jobs for Nigerians and ensure that the nation’s refineries were at optimum production capacity.
It also urged the government to encourage local production to ameliorate the temporary hardship that Nigerians were going through.
In the Aviation industry, the union advised the government to begin the refining of the Aviation fuel popularly known as Jet A1 from the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refinery, pointing out that it would go a long way in reducing the cost of operation and cost of flight ticket.
“Fuel alone constitute about 30 to 40 per cent of the cost of operation.
“The Government should also look into the issue of a National Carrier as promised or strengthen the local domestic Carriers as suggested by various stake holders. One of the above needs to be done ASAP as the industry in currently in a stand still.
“We need more jobs to be created for our pilots and Engineers.
“We want to reiterate our unalloyed support for this novel and bold decision the Federal Government have taken to secure the future of Nigeria,” the Union’s leader stated.
Mr Balami further assured Nigerians that it would not ask Pilots and Aircraft Engineers to go on strike, a statement that negates a decision that the Nigeria Labour Congress may take to force the government to revert the price of petrol which was raised on Wednesday from 86.50 Naira to 145 Naira per litre.
After the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, announced the increase, the labour union said it would resist it.
It issued a four-day ultimatum on Saturday to the Federal Government, asking it to revert to old pump price.
But the Pilot and Engineers’ union said: “As far as we are concern, 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”.