NIGERIA ANTI FUEL PRICE HIKE DOCUMENTS - KINDLY CIRCULATE WIDELY

[Jaye Gaskia]

Dear Compatriots,

Good day to you all. Attached is a folder with all the necessary foundation documents for the Anti - Fuel Price Hike Resistance Struggle; an integral part of the 'WE THE PEOPLE CAMPAIGN', an initiative of the United Action For Democracy [UAD]; a political coalition of citizens groups in Nigeria.

 

We know that on our own we would not be able to muster as much support as possible to challenge this repetitive inhuman governance policy of successive governments of Nigeria. This is why we are determined to build a campaign that is braod enough to include everyone and every organisation or group who are opposed to this and other sets of hardship imposing and unfair policies of the Nigerian Government and its ruling political elites. Our goal is a mass movement coordinating extensive and intense direct mass actions on the streets of Nigeria; in effect to build the largest possible OCCUPY MOVEMENT in Nigeria.

 

We know that functional, equitable and just alternatives exist to the policy of simply hiking fuel prices everytime an incumbent government is short of cash!

 

A cabal/cartel, we are told exists in the energy sector of Nigeria, spanning the electricity and petroleum subsectors: The simple question we ask is why is it such a difficult task to identify, scrutinise, investigate and prosecute this cabal or cartel? It is government that has awarded the failed turn around maintainance contracts running into over a hundred billion naira to revamp the local refineries; it is the same government that in its wisdom awarded licences to private sector investors to build new refineries; the same government also announced with fanfare the decision to build two new publicly owned refineries in Lagos and Kogi states, and went on to give Certificates Of Occupancies [C of Os], through state governors to some companies, some 18 months to build those new refineries; this same government has spent another over 100 billion naira in doubling electricity generation capacity over the last ten years without any appreciable progress in power generation.

 

We say that by plugging these leakages, combatting corruption, identify and bringing culprits to book, the gap in public funding can be filled. What is more, if these steps are taken, and domestic refining capacity of the four existing and the two new refineries are revamped, with those refineries functioning at full capacity; there will be no need to increase fuel prices incessantly, since there will be no need to import refined products; and we may even have to pay considerably less for the product!

 

The energy sector [petroleum and electricity is so central to the sustanance of the livelihoods of the average Nigerian, that this policy of hiking fuel prices has become a yoke on living conditions, and an albatros round the neck of the Nigerian economy. The informal sector will be devastatingly impacted; and so will the formal sector.

 

Join us in prosecuting this campaign!

 

The folder contains information on the Bulk SMS component of the campaign; The petition signing component, for endorsement of mass action against the pending hike; A call to action document that is meant to be shared with groups for their endorsement and that is meant for media outreach; as well as a policy briefing document on fuel price regime in Nigeria.

 

In Solidarity,

 

Jaye Gaskia

National Convener

United Action For Democracy