Tuesday 13 December 2011

We ‘ll mobilise Nigerians against fuel subsidy removal – NLC


The Nigeria Labour Congress has vowed to mobilise Nigerians against the removal of fuel subsidy saying if the government goes ahead “with this reckless unilateral action, the NLC will lead the Nigerian people against it”.

Acting General Secretary of NLC, Mr Owei Lakemfa in his reaction yesterday said: “if NLC does not lead this war, Nigerian people would do it. So, we will not allow this action that might lead to anarchy”.

Labour warming up for industrial action

According to him, “the NLC has its position on the removal of subsidies and we have made it clear that any attempt to remove subsidy would be detrimental to the Nigerian people. The adverse implication of removal of subsidies would be felt by all Nigerians, because most productive Nigerians are in the informal sector.

 “The barbers, hairdressers, shop owners own generators. And they need fuel to power it. When you remove subsidies the prices of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, would be high. The prices of their services will go up and they will have less customers.

“The cost of transportation would also go up. All these would lead to hyper inflation. Nigeria is an oil producing nation and is supposed to have comparative advantage over non oil producing nations, but when subsidies are removed we would have the same experience with non oil producing countries in terms of fuel price. Nigeria belongs to OPEC, but it should not be left at the mercy of international oil prices”.

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