The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has rejected the petrol price hike from between N158 and N162 per litre to N168 and N170, stating that it has worsened the level of anguish in the country.
NLC stated that the increase in the pump price of petrol was “against the spirit and content” of what they agreed with government at the last negotiations over the last fuel price increase.
NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, in a statement in Abuja on Monday noted that the hike 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.”
The statement which was titled, ‘The NLC condemns and rejects the recent increase in the price of petrol,’ argued that Nigerians cannot be made to suffer for the failure of the government to manage the refineries.
The congress also said that if only the government had been alive to its responsibilities, that the nation would not have be in this perilious situation adding that the citizens are bound to react if the price hike led to increase in the cost of foods and services.
It stated, “We need to see big-time petroleum smugglers arraigned in the court of law and made to pay for their crimes against the Nigerian people. Government has the resources available to it to ensure this economic justice to Nigerians.
“The question in the minds of many Nigerians is whether the government is willing to go against major financiers of the major political parties known to the public as the architects of the current national woe.”
The union said the nation to depending on the Dangote refinery to satisfy the nation’s petrol needs is wrong and unideal
It said, “In line with our recent agreement with the government, we will be receiving updates in the next few days from our unions in the petroleum sector which have been given the mandate to keep surveillance on government promise to overhaul our public refineries.
“We will also receive updates from our representatives in the electricity review committee. The updates we receive will determine whether the government has kept to its side of the bargain which is to take serious steps to recover and reposition our public refineries.
“The outcome of this engagement will determine our response in the coming days. But while we are at that, we condemn the recent price increase and we call for its reversal with immediate effect.”
