Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) – Labour on Saturday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to reverse the recent increase of petrol from 86 naira to 145 naira (officially US$ 1 = 200 naira).
In a joint communique issued at the end of the emergency meetings of the National Executive Councils of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), in Abuja, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, President of the NLC, and Bobboi Kaigama, President of the TUC, as well as their civil society allies said they have given President Buhari three days to reverse the increase or face indefinite strike action.
Both labor unions slamming President Buhari for refusing to honor his words during the electioneering campaign where he promised not to remove subsidy.
“During the electioneering campaign last year, the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress ( APC ), Muhammadu Buhari, had promised that, if elected president, he would not remove fuel subsidy if there was any at all.
“After his election, President Buhari had maintained that there was no subsidy in the petroleum product price regime and that even if there was, he did not see how its removal would be beneficial to the ordinary Nigerian, noting that the slightest product price adjustment often leads to inflationary spiral and unimaginable suffering for the people,” said the NLC and TUC.
The unions also attacked the minister of state for petroleum resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, for speaking from what they said were both sides of his mouth.
They urged the Buhari-led government to:
– Revert to the old price regime to reduce the suffering of the people and to consider this singular act of mindless pump price increase as a betrayal of trust;
– Revert to the pre-45 percent electricity tariff increase, make meters available to consumers and stop estimated billing;
– Reconstitute the boards of PPPRA and NNPC without further delay and give them their statutory right to function alongside the DPR in order to deepen the process of consultation, checks and balances in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.”
The unions told Buhari to:
-Intensify the prosecution of all those involved in subsidy scams with a view to recovering and sanctioning the culpable;
-Put in place enhanced local refining capacity within a specified period in place of endless importation as an enduring solution to the perennial problem of scarcity;“
-Reverse the entire deregulation and privatization process which foists on the nation, private individuals as drivers of the economy in contravention of the constitutional provision that says government shall be the driver of the economy and engage the organised labour in the process of negotiation on key policy issues;
Wean itself from the overbearing influence of the neo-liberal elements in its fold who have not only staged a coup but are determined to make this government collapse even before the end of its four-year tenure;
Uphold its electioneering promises to Nigerians instead of subjecting them to the vagaries of slavish policies such as full devaluation of the naira and total removal of subsidy as enunciated by the IMF and its agents in the system.”
Meanwhile, the two major unions in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector have endorsed the price modulation mechanism adopted by the Federal Government to arrive at the new 145 naira per liter pump price for petrol.
Photo: Uncova
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