NIGERIA’S Organised Labour on Friday said it would be a fight to the finish if the Federal Government made good its plan to remove oil subsidy next year.
According to NLC president, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, the removal of oil subsidy will seriously affect 99 per cent of Nigerians.
He challenged President Goodluck Jonathan to subject the plan to a referendum, if he disproves this, adding that rather than hiring consultants to sell the unpopular policy to the outside world, the government should concentrate on actual governance and the alleviation of the suffering of the people.
“As we have stated elsewhere, government’s insistence to hike fuel prices by 120 per cent will further complicate matters for a hungry citizenry that has to cope with growing mass unemployment and a nonexistent social security,” he said.
Omar called on the government to immediately to probe the huge amount so far looted from the nation’s treasury under the guise of subsidy on petroleum products.
He warned: “The NLC, once again, appeals to the government to be accountable and sensitive to the basic needs of the Nigerian people. We again appeal to the Jonathan administration not to toy with the prices of petroleum products as this will definitely lead to a conflagration in the country.
“The Congress advises the federal and state governments to realise that there can be no force in the country greater than the Nigerian people from whom all power must flow.
“As for the NLC, we shall do all that is constitutional to defend the basic rights and interests of the Nigerian worker and people, and safeguard the future of our children.”
The NLC president, therefore, warned that the insistence by the government to go ahead with the subsidy removal would be an invitation to an open revolt by the citizenry and that the NLC was ready to lead the people.
Omar stated that the on-going repression of Nigerians through the policy by the government and attempts to suppress their protests against the IMF/World Bank—dictated removal of fuel subsidy would fail.
“In fact, a resort to dictatorship will spell doom for this administration. We have waged this struggle together with the Nigerian people since 1987. The result is there for us to see. The arguments of the government since then have not changed.
“The reasons adduced for the recent attempt to remove fuel subsidy are as usual to increase fuel prices and make more revenue for the Federal Government without recourse to the negative and traumatic social and economic consequences on the Nigerian people,” he added.
Omar said, “The position of the NLC is that our oil resources which should be an advantage to the country should be used for the benefit of the people; that as Nigerians, we should have comparative advantage on prices of petroleum products over citizens of non-oil producing states.”
He regretted the statement credited to the Petroleum Minister.
Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke had stated that government could not check the fraud in subsidy because the country was not in a military regime, stressing that “this is a rationalization of criminality and an admission of failure.”
On the argument that the subsidy to be removed would be used for road works, public maintenance, mass transportation, youths skill development, maternity and child care, Comrade Omar described such argument as gimmickry.
Courtesy: Nigerian Tribune