Petrol subsidy: NLC suffers setback as North, South-West chapters pull out of planned industrial action

The South-West and Northern state chapters of the National Labour Congress, NLC, have reportedly resolved to pull out of the planned strike due to the alleged politicization of the action that is in protest against the removal of the petrol subsidy.

They have allegedly pulled out of the proposed industrial action.

Since the NLC announced its plans to go on strike over the petrol subsidy removal, the union and the leaders of organized labour have come under criticism from some groups and some individuals, saying that they should rather negotiate with the government.

While the apex umbrella body of all Yoruba indigenous people, Yoruba Council Worldwide (YCW) described the bid to embark on strike action as an act of economic sabotage, the All Progressive Congress, APC through one of its spokespersons, Bayo Onanuga accused Joe Ajaero and other labour leaders of playing politics with the petrol subsidy removal and attempting to destabilise the newly inaugurated government with the planned strike.

Onanuga in a statement on his official Twitter account asked Nigerians to ignore Ajaero’s call for a strike as he was privy to the fact that the government was going to remove the subsidy and was playing politics with the decision to go on strike.

He said, “The politically-tainted NLC, TUC, and NLC President, Joe Ajaero have asked workers to go on strike next Wednesday over the removal of petrol subsidy, despite being privy to the distressing financial figures, which justified why subsidy ought to have been scrapped a long time ago.

“My advice to the perceptive workers and the Nigerian populace is simply to ignore Ajaero and his ilk. He is playing politics and is acting the script of the opposition Labour Party, out to destabilise the young Tinubu’s administration.

“Besides, one wonders whose interest Ajaero is championing, when he did not oppose the position of his Labour Party and presidential candidate, who campaigned with the promise to scrap subsidy from Day One if elected. NLC and TUC leaders knew since last November that the subsidy will be scrapped from July 1 as no provision has been made in the budget for it, beyond this date.

“The federal government, which already commits 96 per cent of its revenue in servicing debt, is not in any position to continue selling subsidized fuel, most of which is smuggled across our borders for criminal and obscenely unpatriotic profit.

“Subsidy of fuel is no longer unsustainable as the federal government is virtually broke. Apart from its N77 trillion debt, it also owes NNPC Limited about N2.4 trillion for past subsidies. The Nigerian people and workers should support the government as it works out new wages and rolls out other interventions, as promised by President Tinubu, to mitigate the effects of the new fuel price.

“Let’s not make ourselves pawns in the hands of the politically biased and tainted NLC and TUC. Ajaero is no longer a labour leader. He is a politician and leader of the Labour Party. He is no more representing all the Nigerian workers.’’

Unperturbed, the NLC in a letter signed by its General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, has intensified its mobilization for the planned strike action with a letter to its affiliates to inform them that the planned action still holds.

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