Why government backed down from reverting to N65

The negotiations, which began between government and labour on Tuesday, through the initiative of the Senate appears to have collapsed after both parties refused to find a common ground.

According to a source, who is a member of the Senate’s conciliatory team, there was an initial commitment from Labour that the on-going industrial strike action would be suspended, under the provision of the pronouncement of National Industrial Court, if government agreed to revert to the N65 price per a liter of petrol, and for government to commence the full deregulation of the downstream oil sector by April 1.

It was gathered that while the two sides, Senate and Labour agreed to continue deliberations the following day (Wednesday), the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, had taken the commitment secured from Labour to President Goodluck Jonathan early Thursday morning, and that the president had agreed to revert to the N65 regime and suspend the removal of the fuel subsidy till April 1.

A new dimension was, however, added to the scenario at meeting which labour had with the government late Thursday night, with a proviso that it was shifting away from the mandate given to government for the full deregulation of the oil industry in April, insisting that the deregulation is subject to negotiations.

The source said: “I can tell you that Labour has not acted in good faith on this matter. We secured an initial commitment from them that they would call off the strike action using the pronouncement of the National Industrial Court as an excuse if government agreed to revert to N65 and go ahead with the full implementation of the deregulation in April.

“We took that commitment to the president and, good enough, the president keyed into that commitment.

“It was shocking when the labour team emerged on Saturday to say that it was shifting from supporting deregulation in April.

“At that point too, government had no choice than to insist that it would roll-back its commitment to revert to the N65 regime, with a proposal from government that it would put the pump price of petrol per litre at between N100 to N120 pending  full deregulation in April.”