The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, alongside their affiliates will begin nationwide mass protests on April 10 over the planned increase in the prices of petroleum products. Both labour centres, and oil workers under the aegis of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Petroleum Tanker Drivers, PTD and Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Senior Staff Association, PENGASSAN, as well as civil servants have also vowed to join the protests.
The protest could be a repeat of the mass action that paralysed the nation following the fuel price hike on January 1, 2012 and forced the government to back down. President Goodluck Jonathan had said last week in Lagos that the government would still remove fuel subsidy after due consultations with Nigerians while speaking at the Nigeria Summit organised by The Economist.
According to him, “We cannot continue to
waste resources meant for a greater number of Nigerians to subsidise the affluent middle class, who are the main beneficiaries (of fuel subsidy).” The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, in defence of President Jonathan, had said the removal of subsidy on fuel is inevitable if the nation is to witness sustainable socioeconomic transformation.
Addressing a press conference in Lagos yesterday, however, President-General of TUC, Mr. Peter Esele, said that the decision for the mass protest has already been taken at the last National Executive Council meeting of the congress and that labour, working with civil society groups, have already started mobilising for protest.
He said that organised labour have also demanded the resignation of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, who is a foremost advocate of fuel subsidy removal on the grounds that she has told Nigerians “too many contradicting stories on fuel subsidy.”
According to him, the Finance Minister last year claimed that N1.2trn had fraudulently gone into subsidy, and that the government will continue to pay subsidy until all the nation’s refineries are repaired and made to work at optimal capacity, and all the depots rehabilitated. Reiterating their readiness to embark on protests on said date, Esele maintained that Nigerians will resist any new increase in petroleum products prices with “everything humanly possible”.
The NLC had earlier called on Jonathan to drop the plan, which it insisted would deepen the suffering of several members of organised labour and other Nigerians who are not part of “the affluent middle class.”
It said that even though it did not know the form the consultations the President spoke about would take, it had a position that fuel price increase was inimical to the well-being of Nigerians. NLC Vice-President, Comrade Promise Adewusi, had said that Labour’s opposition to fuel subsidy removal could only change if Nigerians took a decision to embrace suffering. He had said, “We have a subsisting position on the issue of the removal of fuel subsidy.
Our position is that the issue of fuel increase is something that Nigerians cannot live with; the President should drop it. “We do not know the mode of the consultations that the Federal Government intends to take.
However, unless Nigerians decide to swallow hardship, then it could happen. Our disagreement is not just to disagree but because of our members, and other Nigerians who we feel will suffer from an increase in fuel price.
“They want to consult with Nigerians; and you can see that they are going beyond labour. Let us wait; maybe there is going to be a referendum or a plebiscite so that it would not be as if you are fighting the removal when the people you are fighting for are supporting it.”
PENGASSAN President, Comrade Babatunde Ogun, told National Mirror yesterday that it is not possible for government to increase fuel price now, considering that there are too many unanswered questions including the subsidy claims, position of the refineries, the Petroleum Industry Bill and other issues, adding that government needs to further engage all stakeholders on the project.
However, Ogun said should government go ahead to increase fuel price, PENGASSAN will join Nigerians to resist the move, while at the same time expressing surprise why government is proposing fuel price increase when workers are preparing to meet the government for upward review of salaries.
Opposition political parties and some elements of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have also expressed misgivings about the planned fuel price hike. The All Nigerian People’s Party, ANPP, had said Jonathan would see the wrath of Nigerians if he increased the price of petrol again.
“We don’t think that the President will do that again going by what happened when he did that the other time. Maybe his time has come to see the wrath of Nigerians fully.
He will see it if he does that. “Nigerians are waiting for him and if he wants to see their red eyes, let him do it. He wants to contest in 2015 and he won’t stop making life difficult for the people he wants to govern.
That is wickedness,” ANPP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Emma Eneukwu, said. The Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, also slammed Jonathan for making such a statement when Nigerians were still mourning bomb blasts victims in Kano. Describing the President as “uncaring,” the CPC said since he had once said he did not give a damn; “Nigerians should expect anything from him.”
Sources within the PDP have also reportedly said the fuel subsidy removal was a suicidal gamble for the party ahead of the 2015 polls as the opposition could easily take advantage of the widespread disenchantment to secure an upset at the polls.
The Federal Government had on New Year’s Day in 2012 increased petrol price from N65 per litre to N141 per litre sparking a week of mass protests called by labour and civil society groups that grounded all economic activities nationwide.
The protests were called off after the government backed down and cut the price by 50 per cent to N97 per litre but fuel is still sold above the official price in some parts of the country especially in the South East. In another development, the NLC has called on the management of Aero Airlines to recall the over 600 workers sacked over industrial dispute.
Acting National Secretary, Mr Emma Ugboaja, in a statement titled, “Don’t Provoke Nigerian Workers”, accused the airline of ignoring all industrial relations mechanisms available in the sector to mediate between it and the workers, and that the airline instead decided to terminate the workers appointments. The NLC scribe threatened that the Nigerian workers would rise against the airline if its management did not rescind its decision and recall the workers.
In the statement, Ugboaja said: “NLC and Nigerian workers are surprised that despite huge opportunities provided by the existence of vibrant, well informed, matured and responsible trade unions in the aviation sector, the management of Aero Contractors decided to ignore all available industrial relations mechanisms by dismissing over 655 employees of the company and locked out the entire workforce since March 13.
“Before the management carried out these illinformed actions, they had approached the National Industrial Court for an injunction that will provide the management an opportunity to take anti workers decisions without consultation with the unions, the National Union of Air Transport Employees and the Air Transport Senior Staff Association of Nigeria”.
According to the NLC, the basic intention of the management of the airline was to ultimately circumscribe workers rights to belong to the unions as well as casualise the entire workforce. Furthermore, NLC said the action taken by the airline is totally unacceptable to the congress, and that NLC and its affiliates will do everything possible to defend the rights of the workers.”
“While we applaud the steps taken so far by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, which grounded the airline since safety cannot be guaranteed with an airline that has caused itself avoidable industrial crisis. All employees of airlines all over the world are key to security and safety of flights.
“We call on the management of the airline to recall all those dismissed and reopen their offices immediately. While we will not hesitate to take appropriate solidarity actions in defence of the workers should the management refuse to reverse its decisions, we urge the workers to continue to take all necessary actions, together with their unions, until the decisions are reversed,” the letter said.
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