The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has raised concerns that Nigerians continue to experience deepening poverty, despite the economy recording a 15.10 per cent inflation rate in January 2025.
Addressing members at the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja yesterday, PENGASSAN President Festus Osifo argued that the official inflation data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) does not reflect the reality faced by households across the country.
According to him, the cost of basic goods, particularly food, continues to rise sharply, leaving most citizens struggling to make ends meet.
“If food moved from N5,000 to N10,000, that is 100 per cent inflation. If next year, it moves from N10,000 to N10,200, we celebrate that inflation has dropped. But the price is still double what it used to be. Nigerians are still feeling the heat,” Osifo said, cautioning against celebrating a rising naira or slowing inflation rates as indicators of improved living conditions.
The union also urged both federal and state governments to prioritise technology adoption to tackle insecurity and invest in power generation, transmission, and distribution, particularly as the energy sector becomes more decentralised.
On the recently signed Executive Order 9 (EO9) concerning the direct remittance of oil and gas revenues to the federation account, PENGASSAN warned that the directive could destabilise the sector if not carefully reviewed. Osifo explained that 30 per cent of profit oil is traditionally allocated to management fees to fund operations and staff salaries at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). Remitting these funds directly to the federation account, he said, could leave critical operations underfunded, affecting both foreign exchange earnings and the value of the naira.
The call for reforms comes as President Bola Tinubu convened a high-level meeting at the State House, Abuja, with labour leaders and state governors to discuss workers’ welfare and broader economic concerns.
A source confirmed to ENigeria Newspaper that the engagement was part of ongoing consultations with socio-economic stakeholders on key issues affecting public finance management.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Forum of State Commissioners of Finance, Akintunde Oyebode, estimated that EO9 would add about N1.5 trillion to the federation account.
However, he stressed that this sum represents only a small fraction of the total annual inflows, which exceed N30 trillion, highlighting that the order’s impact on overall growth remains limited.
ENigeria Newspaper also gathered that PENGASSAN also reiterated its demand for majority ownership of the nation’s refineries to improve operational efficiency, safeguard jobs, and enhance energy security, emphasising that sustained production growth would not only stabilise revenue but also protect employment across the petroleum value chain.
