The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called on the Federal Government to consider options to help the country embrace developmental governance and accountable leadership, while rejecting the planned petroleum price increase.
NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, made the call in a statement he issued to newsmen in Abuja, entitled:” Nigerian workers refused to take the bait’.
According to him, the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Malam Mele Kyari, announced that petrol could cost as much as N340 from February 2022.
Dandal Kura Radio International reports that Wabba described as “comical “the bait by the government to pay 40 million Nigerians N5, 000 as palliative, to cushion the effect of astronomical increase in the price of Petrol.
He said that the total amount involved what he called “queer initiative “was far more than the money government claimed to spend currently on fuel subsidy.
Wabba noted that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, re-echoed same on Tuesday at the launch of the World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update (NDU).
He added that the minister announced government’s plans to disburse N5000 to 40 million poorest Nigerians each as transport grant to cushion the effect of the planned removal of the fuel subsidy.
Wabba said the review by the government to increase the price of petrol by more than 200 per cent was a perfect recipe for an aggravated pile of hyper-inflation and astronomical increase in the price of goods and services.
According to him, this will open a wide door to social consequences such as degeneration of the current insecurity crises.