Posted by From OLUWOLE AKINBOYEWA, Abuja on
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared the Federal Government's planned total removal of fuel subsidy come January 1, 2009 as a way of bringing untold hardship to the masses in the absence of a working welfarist programme.
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared the Federal Government's planned total removal of fuel subsidy come January 1, 2009 as a way of bringing untold hardship to the masses in the absence of a working welfarist programme.
Congress President AbdulWaheed Omar said in Abuja on Tuesday that the Congress would resist any policy aimed at compounding the social crisis Nigerians were experiencing as a result of the incessant deregulations of the fuel industry.
Omar who spoke with Labour correspondents at the end of a marathon Congress national executive council emergency meeting in Abuja, described the plan as outrageous.
'This is outrageous and I do not think the average Nigerian would survive on the crisis. I think if it is the responsibility of government to cater for the welfare of the masses. We should not be thinking of removing fuel subsidy," he said.
He disclosed that the Congress was considering the demand for a commensurate pay rise for Nigerian workers to cushion the effects of hyperinflation on their pockets.
Omar warned some foreign industrialists operating 'casualisation" and underpayment policies in the country to pay their employees salaries commensurate to their services or risk being picketed.