Responding to a challenge by Olorogun Festus Keyamo, the Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Employment and the Campaign Spokesperson of the Presidential Campaign of All Progressive on Peter Obi’s sustained campaign that he will remove all subsidies on petrol, the President of NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba has distanced NLC from Peter Obi’s position on petrol subsidy, insisting that “the NLC, Organized Labour, and Labour Party position has not changed. It only got amplified!
NLC had over the years, opposed Federal Government’s attempts to full deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry by removing subsidies paid on petrol. This opposition had led to numerous strike actions, shouting down of the national economy at all levels.
A national critic and social commentator, writing on her Facebook page, called the Statement by Comrade Wabba, a tip of the ice barge of ideology clashes that will occur between Peter Obi and the NLC. This clash she opined, will become more open during campaign rallies, which are expected to start from 28th of September, 2022.
Peter Obi, left PDP-a party whose government since 1999 had been increasing fuel prices by removing subsidies and picked up Labour Party (LP), a party owned by NLC/TUC and Organized Labour Movements, who had since SAP protests under IBB up-to current APC’s government, protested and opposed removal of subsidy.
The statement by NLC reads;
POSITION OF NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS ON PETROL SUBSIDIES HAS NOT CHANGED… IT ONLY GOT AMPLIFIED!
A Press Release.
The attention of the Nigeria Labour Congress has been drawn to a media statement by Olorogun Festus Keyamo, the Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Employment and the Campaign Spokesperson of the Presidential Campaign of All Progressive
Congress (APC). In the statement, the APC challenged the Nigeria Labour Congress over its seemingly support for the position of the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi on the heated issue of the removal of petrol subsidies.
First, we wish to commend the Honourable Minister of State for responding positively to earlier calls by the Nigeria Labour Congress that political parties must focus their engagement on the current electoral cycle campaigns on issues-based politics.
We believe that an issues-based campaign will help sieve the facts from fiction, address burning national issues, review the performance of those in government at all levels especially on the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals, improve Nigeria’s public accountability frameworks, prepare voters behaviour on Election Day away from the destructive lines of ethno-religious divide and defuse the looming political tension.
Second, in furtherance of the avowed position of the Nigeria Labour Congress on issues-based campaign in the run up to the 2023 general election, we wish to state that Nigerian workers through a number of painstaking processes have been able to articulate a Nigerian Workers’ Charter of Demands which the NLC and TUC are using to engage the political process.
A major demand in the Nigerian Workers Charter of Demands is that our local public refineries must work. We have also demanded that we must stop 100% importation of refined petroleum products. The NLC and indeed the Labour movement in Nigeria has over many decades been vehemently consistent that the only way to address the issue of the so-called petrol subsidies is to get our refineries to work. The logic is very simple: it is atrocious to buy from abroad at very expensive prices a product that a country like ours can easily produce at home.
At the heart of our demand on the management of Nigeria’s mineral resources especially our downstream petroleum sub-sector is the issue of Production Economy. We believe that the rescue of Nigeria from the current ruinous path of Consumption Economy to Production Economy is the only way to resolve Nigeria’s economic nightmares of massive depletion of scarce foreign exchange reserve; continuous devaluation of the Naira; significant jobs hemorrhage and destruction, deepening of poverty and downturn in the living standards of our people.
In a determined effort to popularise the positions in the Nigerian Workers Charter of Demands, the NLC and TUC at the behest of the Labour Party on September 12 – 13, 2022 hosted a National
Retreat of the leadership cadres in our movement. At the retreat, the Labour Party and Organized Labour in Nigeria adopted and mainstreamed the Workers Charter of Demands into the Manifesto of the Labour Party. This is in line with our persuasion that issue-based campaign anchored on the manifesto of political parties should drive Nigeria’s political process.
If any political party goes around saying that they plan to sell our refineries, remove subsidies, and further oppress long-suffering Nigerians, they should be ready to defend such stance to Nigerians at the campaigns. The NC, Organized Labour, and Labour Party position has not changed. It only got amplified!
Comrade Ayuba Wabba, mni
President.
17th September 2022
The sustained demands and protests by NLC against removal of subsidies can be found by clicking; https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/nlc-we-are-not-against-subsidy-removal-but/?amp
https://www.icirnigeria.org/labour-opposes-petrol-subsidy-removal-as-analysts-back-fgs-decision/
Wabba said, “We have sufficient information and the issue can be addressed where everyone will benefit. The major issue now is oil theft, not subsidy removal or not. This menace has led to the inability to meet OPEC quota.
“If you remove subsidy without fixing refineries, the same issues will crop up. On daily basis, small and medium scale businesses are closing down and losing due to the price of diesel.
“We have done intensive research on what could be done and it is the inefficiency of our system to not fixing the refineries and it reeks of shifting the inefficiency to the citizens. This is a systemic challenge that needs to be fixed.
“In the other products, kerosene and diesel, is it affordable to the average Nigerian? These are the issues. In most of our villages, transporters contribute to the informal economy and they depend on this. We are not against subsidy removal but it must be on the basis of refining crude in Nigeria via fixing the refineries.”
