NLC vows to resist fuel increase

The Nigeria Labor Congress, NLC, has vowed to
resist the increment in petroleum product
announced today by the Federal government.
Minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Ibe
Kachikwu, announced that the Federal
Government was removing oil subsidy and put
the new figure for petrol price at about N145
liter. The statement from NLC which was signed
by its general secretary Peter Ozo-Eson reads in
part...
" The unilateral increase in prices of petroleum
products today by government represents the
height of insensitivity and impunity and shall be
resisted by the Nigeria Labour Congress and its
civil society allies. With the imposition on the
citizenry of criminal and unjustifiable electricity
tariff and resultant darkness and other economic
challenges brought on by the devaluation of the
Naira and spiraling inflation, the least one had
expected at this point in time was another policy
measure that would further make life more
miserable for the ordinary Nigerian. The latest
increase is the most audacious and cruel in the
history of product price increase as It represents
not only about 80 per cent increase but it is tied
to the black market exchange rate. Further more,
the process through which government arrived
at this is both illogical and illegal as the board
of the PPPRA is not duly constituted. In our
previous statements and communiques, we had
stressed the need for reconstituting the boards
of NNPC and PPPRA and wean both away from
the overbearing influence of the Minister of State
for Petroleum Resources who has assumed the
role of a Sole Administrator. The allusion to the
fact that the this increase was arrived at after
due consultation with stake holders is not only
ridiculous and fallacious, it goes to show that
the brief meeting held today during which
government was advised shelve the idea until at
least it meets with the appropriate organs of the
Congress was in bad faith. Accordingly, we urge
the government to revert the prices to what they
were. We would want to put everybody on notice
that we shall resist this criminal increase with
every means legitimate. Already an emergency
NEC meeting has been scheduled for Friday, May
13, 2016 to decide on the next line of action.
Meanwhile, our affiliates, state councils and civil
society allies are requested to commence
mobilization immediately.”