Our position on subsidies has not changed – NLC
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday insisted that its position on petrol subsidies has not changed noting that Nigeria must be able to refine her petroleum products at home instead of importation.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba reacting to a statement credited to the Minister of State for Labour and Employment and the Campaign Spokesperson of the Presidential Campaign of All Progressive Congress (APC), Festus Keyamo in support of NLC for labour party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi on the issue of the removal of petrol subsidies said labour position remains the same.
He said, “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 NLC, Organized Labour, and Labour Party position has not changed. It only got amplified!”
According to Wabba, a major demand in the Nigerian Workers Charter of Demands is that the 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,” he said.
The NLC President noted that the logic is very simple, stating that it is atrocious to buy from abroad at very expensive prices a product that a country like Nigeria can easily produce at home.
He stated, “At the heart of our demand on the management of Nigeria’s mineral resources especially our downstream petroleum subsector 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 haemorrhage 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.”
He however commended the 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.
He reasoned that labour believes 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.
He expressed that in furtherance of the avowed position of the NLC on issues-based campaign in the run up to the 2023 general election, 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.
