By Ayo Yusuf
The Nigeria Labour Congress has vowed to go on a two day warning strike on Tuesday, September 5, 2023, to protest the government’s inadequate attempt to cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy.
A leading member of the Nigeria Labour Congress said in a terse message that, “There will be a warning strike starting from Tuesday. The national body will issue a notice soon.”
Earlier in August, organised labour staged a national protest over what it described as “anti-poor” policies meted out on Nigerians by the Bola Tinubu administration.
Cost of living had increased exponentially following the removal of fuel subsidy on May 29, 2023, after the inaugural speech of the president where he announced the end to the controversial subsidy regime.
As the price of PMS rose to N610 per litre, Nigerians complained vociferously and Labour immediately threatened to go on strike if the old price was not restored but the government went to the court of arbitration and obtained an injunction against the strike.
Since then government and Labour have been engaged in negotiations over how to cushion the effects of the removal of subsidy on PMS.
So far the Tinubu administration has set up committees to plan out the rollout of palliatives for workers, but the labour centre has been complaining about the failure of the committee set up by the government to come up with effective plans.
When the Federal Government finally announced that it had released a N180bn palliative package to states to cushion the impact of fuel subsidy removal, Labour was unimpressed.
The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress protested that the governors could not be trusted, and that eventually politicians and not the poor would benefit from the N5bn largess given to each state government for disbursement to the citizens.
Announcing the release of the palliative at the end of the 135th National Economic Council meeting presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima in Abuja, the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, disclosed that the N5bn was to enable the state governments procure 100,000 bags of rice, 40,000 bags of maize and fertilizers to cushion the effect of food shortage across the country.
He added that considering the urgency in meeting the need to mitigate the skyrocketing food prices across the country, the Federal Government had also released five trucks of rice to each state of the federation.
VP Shettima had explained the rational for the palliative and the sharing formula thus, “This funding has to be shared with a formula as follows: 52 percent of this money is given to states as grants, while 48 per cent of the N5bn is to be paid back on an installment basis within a period of 20 months to the CBN by the states and the local government areas in Nigeria.
“The council commended the efforts of the Federal Government under the leadership of President Tinubu as well as the CBN. We have also commended the efforts of NEMA in cushioning the effects of the subsidy removal.
“Council has taken bold decisions in order to ensure speedy release of grains and other items in order to cushion the effects of subsidy removal on the less privileged in the society.’’
