NLC, TUC Declares War For Fuel Subsidy Removal

[emezico]

The Nigeria Labour Congress on Monday said it would under no circumstances accept the removal of the fuel subsidy by the Federal Government. The NLC position, which was expressed by one of its senior officials on Monday, differed from the one credited to the Trade Union Congress over the weekend. The President of the TUC, Peter Esele, had told a newspaper that organised labour would accept the Federal Government's proposal if certain conditions were met.

One of such conditions the TUC president reportedly mentioned was that the government should justify how it intended to spend the proceeds from the subsidy removal.

But the General Secretary of the NLC, Mr. Owei Lakemfa, said that the Federal Government did not have any reason to increase the price of petroleum products in January.

"The position of the NLC is that this move by the government would lead to anarchy; it is a provocative act; it is a declaration of war against Nigerians and Nigerians have a duty to prepare for this war," Lakemfa said.

He said that the move to increase the fuel price was indicative of the ignorance of the government about the state of poverty in the country and the magnitude of the suffering to which the common man had been subjected to.

He also said that the claim by the proponents of deregulation that the Federal Government would save some money from the subsidy for poverty alleviation and developmental purposes was not different from the "lies" that marked the government of former military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, in the 1990s.

PUNCH