Nigeria: FOBTOB President Seeks Support for $53.83 Bench Mark

Source from:  Daily Champion (Lagos) 7 September 2007 09/10/2007

President of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB) Comrade Gabriel Babalola has said that Nigerians should give the federal government the benefit of doubt and assume that the $53.83 per barrel bench mark for the budget is realistic. "I want to assume that the Budget office arrived at the figure after careful analysis of the vagaries of international oil market and their effect on our national economy. The real problem of government is not in the area of policy formulations but their implementation. Let us hope therefore that the nation's economic managers work hard enough to sustain the relative stability in the exchange of value of the naira vis a vis the US Dollar. This will encourage more investors to come. "Another corollary to this is the crisis in the Niger Delta region. Earnings from crude oil had noticeably dropped due largely to disruption in the region leading to a fall in crude oil production. "Government should check this problem, among others if we do not want the 2008 budget to derailed. On his part, the Acting General Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) Comrade Gideon Ogbuji agreed that the $53.83 bench mark was realistic. He also argued that it could equally go higher if the problem in the Niger Delta region persists. "I say this because the Niger Delta crisis is central to efforts aimed at achieving stability in the price of oil both at the international and local markets given Nigeria's position as the sixth world's largest oil producer. "Government must move fast enough to settle the problem in the region to check disruption in oil production." Enditem