Former National President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Peter Esele, in this interview with GLORIA NWAFOR, speaks on the need for the Federal Government to resuscitate technical education to reduce unemployment in the country. Esele also said that organised labour should deploy new ways of engaging the government. Excerpts:
How do you respond to the government’s claim that subsidy on petrol has stopped?
If you listen to the current president of PENGASSAN, he also alluded to that in an interview recently. We all know that because Abuja is paying more than what we are paying in Lagos, and as of the time the price was pegged, the price of a barrel of crude was around $70. So, a barrel of crude, on average, is now about $89. So, it is common sense that the price increment has not been reflected at the pump. So that difference is being paid by who? By the government! Then two, when we are talking about subsidy or no subsidy, deregulation or no deregulation, what are the basis? What are the indices that let you know that things are not the way they are supposed to be? Now, NNPC is the only company that is bringing in the product.
In a deregulated market, where you expect everybody to be players, and where you expect market forces to determine the price, NNPC cannot be the only one bringing in the product. Licenses have been issued to people to be able to bring in products, but nobody is bringing in products because they can’t even access foreign exchange (FX). So, if somebody goes and brings in a product and goes to a parallel market, how is he going to sell at the current price? What we are saying is that going by what we are experiencing today, the government cannot go full throttle on subsidy removal. I understand what the government is doing right now. With the hardship affecting Nigerians, are they going to tell somebody to come and pay N800 for a litre of petrol? Because, looking at a rough estimate, landing costs will be between N700 and N720. So, are you going to tell somebody in these hard economic times to pay that amount of money? You will have social dislocation and upheaval.
So, the government is using common sense. But what I don’t understand is why are you not out to communicate it? Like, because we don’t want life to be that difficult for Nigerians, so, this is what we are doing. If the government is paying subsidies right now, based on Mele Kyari’s analysis, about six million litres per day will drop by 30 per cent instantly. So, we are now looking at consuming about 40 million litres per day from all of his analysis. But nothing is wrong with the government coming out in the open and saying, we still pay, this is what we are still paying. Then they’ll now prepare for full-blown by ensuring that the transport system is working. If the transport system becomes more efficient, a lot of us will park our cars and go by public transport. So, whatever you are getting out of this, everybody goes in there and puts money in. I have always emphasised the omnibus plan. It is not just the Federal Government alone. Transportation is not the prerogative of the Federal Government, state and local governments are responsible for the provision of transportation. They all will now come together and draw up a plan. The plan will be, are we going to use gas? Are we going to use CNG? If we are going to use CNG, how many passenger buses are we going to make available? Mass transit that is neat, efficient and that works clockwise is doable.
I think all we need to do is get people, who are experts in that field, to commission them and make a huge investment. We have so many companies that assemble vehicles, bring them together and give them a target, say in six months, subsidise them, then they make the vehicles and bring them out.
What should the government do urgently as negotiations continue with labour?
I urge labour leaders to have a holistic negotiation that will affect everybody in terms of healthcare and education. The government should invest heavily in education. I am aware that about 70 to 80 per cent of oil workers have either a child in a private university in Nigeria that is very expensive or have them school abroad. So, just imagine, first of all, the amount of dollars that is going to those countries. If things were okay, would you send your children to study abroad? No. Most of us will gladly have our children here and then you use that money to set up something that will generate income.
First of all, you have to deal with the issue of strikes in public schools that have led to the influx of private universities. I am also aware people are bringing back their children because they cannot get dollars to pay the fees. But because there is no investment in public universities, the private universities now come up and also tell you that they have to increase the fees. So, the situation now is that everybody is fighting for survival. That is why I am telling those who are negotiating (labour) to make sure that they do a negotiation that will cover everybody, especially in education and healthcare.
This administration promised to tackle the high rate of unemployment by providing jobs across sectors of the economy. Part of the promises include one million jobs in the digital economy and 500,000 jobs when Ajaokuta Steel comes on stream. Do you see these promises come to fruition?
THESE are some of the solutions. If Ajaokuta comes on stream now, it will also create jobs in that locality and will have a spillover effect. But the most important thing is what they are teaching us in school. One of the things about the education system is that you go to school and when you finish, look for work. We are not made to know that we should leave the university and go create jobs.
However, I am happy that there are some private universities where the students are being made to learn how to be on their own and how to create jobs. So, for us, the government will say they want to do this, but you have to go to the foundation. The foundation is what is your training? How are you training the people? I went to the university, but as I am talking to you now, I am not using my university degree. It is not what I use in working for an oil company, it was a technical skill that I acquired when I was 18. Nigeria has lost focus on the technical aspect of education.
So, going to university, for me, was kind of to fulfill all righteousness. One of the ways we can help to curtail employment is the government creating an environment for people to invest and improve the quality of education and technical skills. Though my varsity education may be good for my CV, I went to Oxford and had some programmes in Cambridge. The one that put food on my table has been the technical skills.
There is a need to let people know the importance of technical skills and the government can also tap into that. When the government is talking about the digital economy, this generation is already ahead of the government. All that the government needs to do is to tie a system around it. That is why we are not maximising and not making enough money out of it. To fight unemployment and for economic growth, it has to be systemic. It is not ad hoc. It is not that you just wake up one morning and want to create jobs. Somebody says he wants to create five million jobs in four years, how do you want to create it? It is for us to have a system that is built on trust and integrity and anybody that beats the system would pay for it. I am from Edo State and remember when we were much younger, everybody talked about Benin Technical College. If you go to Benin Technical College and you are out, you get a job instantly, and even if you decide to be on your own, once you say you are a product of Benin Technical College, they want to give you the job, because they know you are well trained. So, those are the areas where we can deal with unemployment.
Casualisation has been a major challenge in the oil and gas sector and has also entered into many sectors. What urgent measures should be taken to address this?
THE first is to have all the casual workers organised but management does not want that. Organised Labour must stick to that by having those people first organise, then the Federal Ministry of Labour should also come up with and enforce the rules. Those days if you are a casual worker, after one year you become a permanent staff member. The word casual is that your job is temporary, but somebody cannot be a casual worker after 10 years and there are several of those. It is worse now in the banking sector.
First, we need to get to the level where they are allowed to organise. Once they can organise, it now gives them room to negotiate what they should earn. They may not earn as much as the permanent workers, but I will tell you now that the casual workers in oil and gas, you don’t call them casual workers, you call them contract staff. The key to dealing with the issue of casualisation is organising and not agonising, and the Federal Ministry of Labour needs to support the worker because if a worker is happy, his productivity also increases.
Source: The Guardian
