President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba on Thursday condemned the lingering scarcity of fuel and the long queues across the country.

Mr Wabba said it is pathetic that Nigeria has not availed itself of the rich endowment of oil resources by continuing to depend on imported petroleum products for local consumption.

He said that the situation has brought about dire consequences on productivity, economy and wellbeing of the citizens.

“For instance, diesel is now selling at more than N800 per litre. It is unfortunate that Nigeria, despite being a major oil producing country, has continued to fail to refine her own crude oil.

“The result of this, is the net total of 100 per cent importation of refined petroleum products into Nigeria.

“The consequence is the heavy hemorrhage of our national coffers, especially given our current challenges, which has also brought about the long queues in almost all the filling stations,’’ he said.

The labour leader spoke at the commencement of the union’s central working committee meeting on Thursday in Abuja.

He also noted that the situation had affected the purchasing power of many Nigerians, brought hardships, while many businesses had been brought to a halt due to dependence on expensive alternative power sources such as generators.

Mr Wabba, therefore, said the only way out of the challenges was to end discussions on whether there was subsidy or not, and refine petroleum products for domestic use.

He also condemned the recent sack of more than 3,000 teachers by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State.

(NAN)