 |
Secretary
to the Government of the Federation, Engineer Babachir David Lawal (C) with Minister
of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige (L) and Governor Adams Oshiomhole
of Edo State (R)
|
The Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Engineer Babachir David Lawal, has announced the
appointment of Alhaji Mohammed Lawan Buba as chairman of the Petroleum Products
Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
He
disclosed this in Abuja yesterday after a meeting with the Nigerian Labour
Congress (NLC) to review issues involved in the new pump price of petrol
recently announced by the federal government.
The
SGF said President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the appointment of Buba,
adding that he had also expressed willingness to serve on the board.
Buba
is a former Director General of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC)
and also a former Group Executive Director of Commercial & Investment at
NNPC.
Labour
had on Sunday suspended its indefinite strike to demand reversal of the pump
price of petrol from ₦145 to ₦86.50 with a resolve to enter into negotiation
with the federal government on the review of minimum wage for workers,
electricity tariff and constitution of the board of the PPMC among other
issues.
The
PPPRA board which has the statutory role of determining and fixing the prices
of petroleum products has not been constituted for over four years.
He
said a 16-man committee had been set up to look into the various issues that
emanated from the hike in price of petrol such as the minimum wage,
implementation of the ₦500bn palliative in the 2016 budget as well as the
review of the pump price.
The
Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said the review of the
minimum wage was a tripartite negotiation arrangement.
He
added that the 16-man committee was expected to work out the framework to
constitute the committee for the minimum wage review.
“I
chair the committee and we are waiting for the NLC to forward their nominees so
that the committee can be inaugurated sometime next week,” he said.
Asked
if the committee would also be working with the other factions of the NLC,
Ngige said: “We don’t know of any faction. We had our problem as a government
and NLC is NLC, TUC is TUC. We will not pry into anybody’s problem. If they
have in-house problem, they will solve it. Husband and wife have problems and
they reconcile. Government will be willing to play a major role to make sure we
have one indivisible NLC.”
Responding to questions from journalists, NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba who led other labour leaders to the meeting confirmed that the meeting was successful.
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