Nigerian Labour Congress leader Alhaji Abduwahid Omar.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Monday, 06 September 2010 00:00
From Collins Olayinka, Abuja
Nigerian Guardian
THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed its readiness for a protest if the Federal Government makes good its plan to remove subsidy on fuel.
Labour’s position followed the Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga’s remark that the government had set between December 2010 and January 2011 for the removal of fuel subsidy.
The minister was also quoted to have said that the plan to remove fuel subsidy was informed by the massive investment in the provision of a mass transit system meant to cushion the negative effects that the removal would occasion.
A statement issued on Monday in Abuja by NLC Head, Information and Public Relations, Onah Iduh, said the pronouncement of the minister was in conflict with the ongoing dialogue between it and government.
The statement read in part: “As far as Congress is concerned, the position of the minister is completely against the subsisting dialogue between labour and government, which began a few weeks Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as President and Commander-in-Chief when he set up a committee to look at Labour’s critical areas of concern.
“To the best of our knowledge, nothing meaningful has come out of the discussion up to now. We see the minister’s comment therefore as pre-emptive of the dialogue and invariably a mark of government’s insincerity on the policies of subsidy and deregulation.”
According to the NLC, its opposition to both deregulation and fuel subsidy removal is principally because these policies do not take into cognisance the social undercurrents that directly affect the standard of living of the masses.
The NLC said: “We wish to state that the NLC still remains opposed to the twin policies of subsidy withdrawal and deregulation principally because the arguments usually advanced by government do not take into consideration the broader social and economic ramifications especially the masses who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of subsidy.”
Apparently faulting the declaration by the minister that the provision of mass transit was enough to cushion the multi-dimensional effects of the removal, the Abdulwahed Omar-led Congress posited that the planned removal clearly demonstrated government’s social irresponsibility and shirking of its responsibility of catering for the welfare of its citizenry as stated in relevant sections of the nation’s constitution.
The national umbrella body Nigerian workers said: “We wish to make it abundantly clear that the implications of the removal of subsidy go far beyond the question of availability of mass transit system or whatever amount of money government would be saving. It is essentially the question of government living up to its basic responsibility of providing governance in the best interest of the masses.
“In the oil sector, which is the hub of our economy, this will be symbolised in functional refineries, effectively coordinated distribution network and other variables all geared towards serving national interests.”
According to NLC, what is required is the will, commitment and courage on the part of government to frontally confront the numerous challenges in the oil sector, the most serious of which is corruption.
It stressed that it was purely for this reason that the NLC had maintained that it would not accept increase in the prices of petroleum products in the name of subsidy withdrawal or deregulation.
Unequivocal about its willingness and capacity to resist fuel removal and other anti-people policies, the NLC, while calling on the President to jettison any advice that would not serve the interest of the Nigerian people, said if the fuel subsidy was executed, it might be unable to guarantee industrial peace in the country.
It also admonished government to engage all the critical stakeholders before implementing the policy, saying anything contrary to this might add to the suffering of Nigerians.
“We wish to therefore restate our call on President Goodluck Jonathan to ignore any advice to remove subsidy on petroleum products without exhaustive engagement with relevant stakeholders particularly labour since we believe that this is not the time to put additional burden on already overburdened Nigerians. For this reason, Nigeria Labour Congress will not be able to guarantee industrial peace in the country if government goes ahead to unilaterally withdraw subsidies on fuel products as the Minister of Finance stated,” NLC added.
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