The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC says it would be disastrous to remove fuel subsidy for now, saying such action will set the country on fire.
The Labour spoke barely 24 hours after the federal government said it has suspended the removal, leaving the incoming administration to decide on what to do with the multi-billion fuel subsidy regime.
Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance and National Planning stated on Thursday that the subsidy will last beyond the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The administration had earlier set the middle of this year for the removal, saying the present economic realities in the country could no longer support the regime.
Ahmed while speaking to journalists after the National Economic Council, NEC, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo stated that the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA would also need to be amended before a final decision could be made on the matter, noting that the current Act provided subsidy until June this year.
Speaking, Benson Upah, Head of Information of the NLC said the decision to suspend the removal is the right thing to do for now, saying the country would be “set on fire” if the government had gone ahead with the removal.
Upah said, “There would have been instantaneous reaction. Of course, we would have been glad to coordinate those reactions.
“But happily, they have beginning to see the light. Our advice would be that they should take a lesson from the document we gave them on the so-called fuel subsidy removal. The answer cannot be far from domestic production.”
Meanwhile, not a few have said that the outgoing administration of President Buhari has deliberately set a trap for the incoming administration of Bola Tinubu, by transferring the decision to end the fuel subsidy regime to it.
It will be very difficult for the new administration to end subsidy when it comes to power, considering the negative reaction of Nigerians, including the Organised Labour to the issue.
For instance, Labour has warned that it will resist the removal except the refineries are fixed first.
