The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has broken its silence after a lot of pressure from Nigerians to react over recent increment in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol.
Daily Trust had reported that the organised labour under the aegis of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) ignored Nigerians’ call for action over the increment.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba and his TUC counterpart, Quadri Olaleye had ignored several calls both online and offline including several calls, text and Whatsapp messages sent by Daily Trust since Saturday when the federal government raised the pump price to N170 per litre.
But Wabba, in a statement made available to newsmen, said labour condemned and rejected the recent increase in price petrol, adding that the increment has only exacerbated the current level of pain and anguish in the country.
According to him, “The recent increase in the pump price of PMS is clearly against the spirit and content of what Organized Labour agreed with the government at the last negotiations over the last fuel price increase.”
The labour leader, who said the government had not been alive to its responsibilities, stressed that it had painted the labour unions in bad image in the eyes of Nigerians with recent moves.
He said, “It has also cast in very bad light our utmost good faith with regards to government explanations that it lacks funds to continue bankrolling the so-called subsidy payments as such would sooner than later cripple the entire economy, throw the country into severe economic crisis and cause loss of jobs in millions.
“While we await the full recovery of our refineries as contained in our agreement with government, Nigerians cannot be made to bleed endlessly for the failures of successive government to properly manage our refineries, ensure value for money for the numerous Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) which were poorly and barely executed and the horrifying lack of interest in prosecuting public officials and private business people who have profited from the rot in our petroleum sector and the collective misery they have imposed on the general population.
“The truth is that we would not have been in this precarious situation if the government had been alive to its responsibilities. There is a limit to what the citizens can tolerate if this abysmal increases in the price of refined petroleum products and other essential goods and services continue.”
Wabba, however, called on the government to review all its policies leading to daily inflation particularly the recent reduction of petrol price.
