Ahead of the planned nationwide strike by the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Nigerians have been advised to shun the strike called by organized labour over the removal of the fuel subsidy by the federal government.
Bayo Onanuga, Director, Media and Publicity for the dissolved All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council made the admonition on Saturday, accusing NLC of working for the opposition Labour Party, LP whose presidential candidate, Peter Obi is currently at the election tribunal to disprove the election of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president and commander-in-chief.
Tinubu during his inauguration on May 29, announced the end of the multi-billion fuel subsidy regime that cost Nigeria over $10 billion last year.
The president’s announcement that ‘subsidy is gone’ has elicited mixed reactions from Nigerians.
Organized labour under the aegis of the NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC, however, kicked saying the removal will bring untold hardship to Nigerians.
The NLC president, Joe Ajaero, in a statement on Friday, said the workers will embark on a five-day warning strike if the federal government failed to rescind its decision which has led to petrol being sold for at least N500 per litre across the country.
Ajaero said the decision was taken unilaterally without consulting with the Labour, adding that the removal has serious consequences for his members.
But in his response, Onanuga advised Nigerians not to allow them to be misled by NLC which he accused of working with the opposition labour party to throw the country into crisis.
He on his verified Twitter handle that the Ajaero-led union is playing politics and acting the script of the opposition LP, warning that Ajaero is trying to destabilise the Tinubu’s administration.
He explained that the country is currently broke and can no longer afford the bogus payment of subsidy on petrol.
According to him, “NLC President Joe Ajaero has asked workers to go on strike next Wednesday over the removal of petrol subsidy, despite being privy to the distressing financial figures, which justified why subsidy ought to have been scrapped a long time ago. My advice to the perceptive workers and the Nigerian populace is simply to ignore Ajaero and his ilk.
“He is playing politics and is actually acting the script of the opposition Labour Party, out to destabilise the young Tinubu administration.
“Besides, one wonders whose interest Ajaero is championing, when he did not oppose the position of his Labour Party and presidential candidate, who campaigned with the promise to scrap subsidy from Day One, if elected.
“NLC and TUC leaders knew since last year November that subsidy will be scrapped from July 1 as no provision has been made in the budget for it, beyond this date.
“The Federal Government which already commits 96 percent of its revenue in servicing debt is not in any position to continue selling subsidised fuel, most of which is smuggled across our borders for criminal and obscenely unpatriotic profit.”
“The Nigerian people and workers should support the government as it works out new wages and rolls out other interventions, as promised by President Tinubu, to mitigate the effects of the new fuel price.
“Let’s not make ourselves pawns in the hands of the politically biased and tainted NLC and TUC. Ajaero is no more a labour leader. He is a politician and leader of the Labour Party.
“He is no more representing all the Nigerian workers.”
Meanwhile, Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, said on Friday that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC Ltd has no power to announce a hike in the price of petrol.
President Tinubu, he said, is the only one that could make that announcement since the Minister of Petroleum is yet to be appointed.
