Following the knee-jack hike in the price of petroleum product, the Nigerian labour Congress, NLC has threatened the Federal Government that the labour union may resolve to self help Petroleum price on Tuesday, 18th July, 203 jumped from N539 per litre to N617 thereby sending a shock wave into the transportation industry amidst complaints by the general public over steady inflation that is holding the nation economy by the jugular.
The latest increase came in less than two months after the same product was jerked to N539 from the previous N195 per litre after removal of the petroleum subsidy by the government of bola Ahmed Tiunubu.
The increase in the fuel hike has lead to an increased burden for household as fuel price has a ripple effect in Nigerian economy that is an import-dependent economy.
The NLC while reacting to the development said yesterday that the union was appalled by the latest hike of the petroleum product when Nigerian is still figuring out how to find their foot from the wave of the last hike when the acclaimed subsidy was removed.m
Speaking through its president, Comrade Joe Ajaero , the labour leader said the labour restrained itself from making further comment publicly on the “Vexatious issues around the recent but unfortunate unilateral hike in the price of PMS in the guise of the so-called subsidy withdrawal, which has unleashed predictably as we had earlier warned unimaginable and unprecedented hardship, sorrow, anguish and suffering upon Nigerian workers and masses.”
Though he said the union patience was anchored on its strong and abiding faith as social dialogue was in the pipeline as a road to resolving the already build-up tension in the public domain a democratic society, “The government of Nigeria seems to have been misled into believing that resorting to impunity and imperiousness in governance in a democracy is a beneficial option as it pursues its stated and unstated objectives.
Ajaero said, “It is this belief that we are sure has continued shaping the actions of this government since its inauguration on the 29th day of May, 2023 to continue inflicting mindless and heartless pains on the populace one after the other without the decency of embracing the tenets of democracy, which requires wide and deep stakeholder consultation on weighty matters of state.
“As it stands, rather than reciprocate the goodwill of Nigerian workers, the federal government has insisted on threading the path of dictatorship and seeking to impoverish the people further by taking steps that can only be described as robbing the people of Nigeria to pay and feed the rich.
The NLC leader explained that “It is on this basis that the NLC strongly condemns the decision of the Tinubu led administration to seek the approval of the National Assembly to obtain another tranche of external loans worth N500b from the World Bank for the purposes of carrying out a phantom palliative measure to cushion the effect of its poorly thought-out hike in the prices of Premium Motor Spirit. Remember that the U$800m, which was already proposed before the devaluation of the Naira by this government was worth about N400b then but is now worth about N650b after devaluation. It is from this, it proposes to bring out N500b for distribution.
He added, “The proposal to pay N8,000 to each of the so-called 12 million poorest Nigerian households for a period of six months insults our collective intelligence and makes a mockery of our patience and abiding faith in social dialogue, which the government may have alluded to albeit pretentiously”.
Ajaero kicked against the N70billion that is slated to be dashed to the national assembly among other things saying, “This is the most insensitive, reckless and brazen diversion of our collective patrimony into the pockets of public officers whose sworn responsibility it is to protect our nation’s treasury.”
He added that it is obvious the federal government was only tricking Nigerians on its claim of how to manage the subsidy removal for the benefit of all.
He revealed that “It is important to inform Nigerians that despite having shown our readiness to commence work in the committees, the federal government, which convenes the meetings, is yet to inaugurate the National Steering Committee thus stalling the work of the proposed committees.
“We do not want to provide a cover for the government to get away with the hardship it has imposed on the people. We do not want to legitimise impunity, the NLC leader added.
Consequently, the labour leader threatened that “As a result, if the government does not want to stop these fortuitous actions that it is pursuing in the name of palliatives, we will be forced to constructively review our engagement with the government on this vexatious issue and take matters into our own hands,”