By Bimbola Oyesola
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), yesterday, said it has commenced mobilisation against the Federal Government’s proposed increase in price of petroleum next year by over 200 percent which will be as a result of subsidy removal on petroleum product.
This is even as former general secretary of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Frank Kokori, charged organised labour to fight government manipulation and corruption tendencies masquerading as fuel subsidy.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, who spoke at the opening ceremony of 17th NLC Harmattan School in Ilorin, Kwara State, yesterday, vowed that labour would resist it because the impact of the price hike would affect every Nigerians, motorists, households, transporters, and others.
He lamented that out of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member countries, it is only Nigeria that is following the International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies, which he described as neo-liberal.
“We have said it several times that the concept of adopting deregulation anchored in importation would not be supported by us as it would mean no end to fuel crisis.
“It pays the cabals to import than to refine locally hence it will take a lot of political will to fight them. We’ve told those in government to give us the figure of our daily consumption.”
Wabba said labour is ready to engage but should not be based on jacket strait, maintaining acceptance of the increase means more Nigerians would further degenerate into poverty.
According to him, payment of N5,000 to
40 million poor Nigerians as palliatives was a hoax as previous palliatives were never paid.
He said: “We’ve seen some of these policies, palliatives for 500,000, yet to be paid, no empirical data. Ours have been what impact will it be, even the minimum wage for workers, pensioners, the gains have already been eroded. Government do not have to make pronouncements before engaging labour and that’s why we are mobilising.”
He said government should be looking at ways of resuscitating the refineries and local refinery of the products as well as stabilising the value of naira.
In his speech, Kokori said present labour leaders should be up and doing, and fight corruption in the land, noting that labour is not bread and butter but rather a tribune of the country.
According to him, labour struggle should not only be about fighting for minimum wage but challenge bad governance in the country as it was the case during the time of old.
“Why should Nigerian workers allow our refinery to die? What’s the meaning of subsidy? I’m not happy with organised labour again, you have to fight corruption perpetrated through subsidy,” he said.
Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, however, said government was still disposed to dialogue with organised labour on the subsidy removal.
He said government presently is paying N200 billion monthly on subsidy which according to him, it is not sustainable and good for the economy.
“Subsidy removal is an economic necessity. There will be a convergence somewhere with labour. We are going to revisit our discussion to see where and how we will resolve the issue,” he said.
Director General of MINILS, Issa Aremu, said Nigeria Labour has done so much in the past and could still do more, noting that for NLC to have organised the Harmattan School training for workers for 17 years consistently showed that the congress is keeping faith with educating its members.
“We cannot make progress in the continent if the Nigerian workers cannot stand up to air their voices, we should be more pan-African,” he said.