The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has explained why Nigeria’s government-owned refineries have continued to struggle despite billions of naira spent on their rehabilitation, blaming the failure on the inability of the facilities to operate profitably.
PENGASSAN president, Comrade Festus Osifo, disclosed this yesterday while addressing past presidents, secretaries-general and founding fathers of the association, stressing that the Port Harcourt refinery, despite the huge funds invested in its revival, had failed to deliver the expected returns.
Osifo said the inability of the refineries to generate profit remained a major factor undermining their sustained operation, raising questions about the effectiveness of successive government interventions in the sector.
He also warned that rising poverty across the country was threatening efforts to tackle insecurity, urging the federal government, state governments and local authorities to take drastic and coordinated measures to improve the living conditions of Nigerians.
According to him, insecurity would remain difficult to contain unless governments at all levels urgently addressed the worsening economic hardship and created conditions that would reduce poverty.
The PENGASSAN president particularly called for stronger and more responsive governance at the grassroots, arguing that local governments, being the closest tier of government to the people, should be repositioned to address the everyday challenges confronting citizens.
He lamented that many local governments had become largely ineffective, leaving citizens without an effective grassroots mechanism through which they could demand accountability and solutions to basic community needs.
Osifo argued that the situation had contributed to the rising level of poverty and called for a fundamental review of governance at the local level.
He said the economic hardship confronting Nigerians had implications beyond the welfare of organised workers, noting that even employees earning relatively good salaries were affected by the financial difficulties of family members, neighbours and people within their communities.
According to him, a worker might earn a good income but could quickly find such earnings depleted by the responsibility of supporting unemployed relatives and others struggling financially.
He stressed that while PENGASSAN’s primary responsibility remained the protection of its members’ jobs, remuneration and welfare, the association could not ignore the wider economic challenges confronting the country.
“Government must demonstrate greater responsiveness to the plight of Nigerians,” Osifo said, stressing that poverty reduction was a collective responsibility involving the federal government, states and local governments.
He further emphasised the importance of members’ welfare and capacity development to the sustainability of the union, noting that workers remained an integral part of society and that their wellbeing could have a wider impact on the larger population.
Osifo said the gathering was also organised to honour past leaders and founding fathers of PENGASSAN whose sacrifices and contributions had helped build the foundation upon which successive administrations had continued to develop the association.
He noted that former leaders had remained available to advise the current leadership whenever they identified issues requiring attention or areas where improvements were needed.
He described the awards presented to the former officials as tokens of appreciation for their sacrifices and contributions to the growth and development of the association.
SOURCE: Leadership
