Governor Godwin Emefiele’s controlled Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has successfully intervened in the crisis rocking the aviation sector of Nigeria after assuring the sector that 6 million liters of fuel is available to prevent their strike action.
The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) last week Friday threatened to shut down operations in the country starting from Monday May 9, 2022 over the jump in the price of aviation fuel, popularly called JetA1, from N190/litre to N700/litre.
Unlike the government’s reaction to the ongoing strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which has denied Nigerians access to education over the past 4 months, the AON’s threat gained the attention of National Assembly leadership, the NNPC and the CBN.
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In a swift intervention, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila and Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Wase, coordinated a meeting to resolve the matter very quickly.
On Monday, just at the moment the AON were expected to commence their strike action, the Speaker revealed that the CBN Governor has assured that there are six million litres of JetA1 available now at N480/litre for the marketers.
Instead of buying at N700/litre, the AON can now buy at N480/liter after Godwin Emefiele’s assurance that six million litres of JetA1 is available for them to cover a period of three months.
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The Airline operators, who felt satisfied with the intervention of the House and CBN Governor, suspended the planned flight shutdown citing economic and security reasons.
Speaking after a meeting on Monday, Gbajabiamila said the stakeholders had reached a four-point agreement, following their meeting with the airlines. Firstly, he said the carriers had agreed to call off the proposed withdrawal of services.
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Speaking further, he said “Two, NNPC and the airline operators have both agreed that in the interim – for three months, your (AON’s) marketers of choice, that you are comfortable with, that you know their price would not drive you out of business, would be supplied with jet fuel.
“The third resolution is that in the mid-term to long-term, in fact right now, you will begin or commence the process of applying for your license to be able to import your own jet fuel, so that it will remove middleman or the vagrancies of it; you will know the landing cost and how it will assist you in your business.
“According to the CBN governor, there are six million litres available now at N480. You will get an allocation in the next three months through the companies (marketers) that you have nominated so that you would not come back and say jet fuel is now a certain amount and it is the fault of the NNPC. You have nominated those people that are selling to you,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have recently extended their ongoing strike action by three (3) months over what was described as “non-seriousness of the government” to resolve the issue.
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The strike action by the union has stalled all academic activities in the country, keeping Nigerian students out of school.
ASUU’s demands from the Federal Government lies on the non implementation of their 2009 agreement, some other demands are Earned Academic Allowances, renegotiation of the 2009 agreement and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) among others.
Although the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, said the government has invited ASUU for talks, the National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said the union had received no such invitation.
Nigerians have frequently criticised the government’s lack of will to support the educational sector as government officials have been accused of paying attentions to things that are important to them and not the general populace.
With the strike in the Aviation sector averted due to swift interventions, many showed anticipation that the ASUU crisis will gain the important attention it deserves.
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