The unilateral increase in prices of
petroleum products today by government represents the height of insensitivity
and impunity and shall be resisted by the Nigeria Labour Congress and its civil
society allies.
With the imposition
on the citizenry of criminal and unjustifiable electricity tariff and resultant
darkness and other economic challenges brought on by the devaluation of the
Naira and spiraling inflation, the least one had
expected at this point in time was another policy measure that would further
make life more miserable for the ordinary Nigerian
The latest increase is the most audacious and cruel in
the history of product price increase as It represents not only about 80 per
cent increase but it is tied to the black market exchange rate.
Further more, the process through which
government arrived at this is both illogical and illegal as the board of the
PPPRA is not duly constituted. In our previous statements and communiques, we
had stressed the need for reconstituting the boards of NNPC and PPPRA and wean
both away from the overbearing influence of the Minister of State for Petroleum
Resources who has assumed the role of a Sole Administrator.
The allusion to the fact that the this
increase was arrived at after due consultation with stake holders is not only
ridiculous and fallacious, it goes to show that the brief meeting held today
during which government was advised shelve the idea until at least it meets
with the appropriate organs of the Congress was in bad faith.
Accordingly, we urge the government to
revert the prices to what they were. We would want to put everybody on notice
that we shall resist this criminal increase with every means legitimate.
Already an emergency NEC meeting has been
scheduled for Friday, May 13, 2016 to decide on the next line of action.
Meanwhile, our affiliates, state councils and civil society allies are
requested to commence mobilization immediately.
Dr Peter Ozo-Eson
General Secretary-NLC
General Secretary-NLC
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