Fuel Price Hike Violates Our Agreement With FG – NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress has rejected the fuel price hike from between N158 and N160 per litre to between N168 and N170, stating that it has worsened the level of anguish in the country.

It noted that the increase in the pump price of petrol was “against the spirit and content” of what the organised labour agreed with the government at the last negotiations over the last fuel price increase.

Reacting to the development in a statement in Abuja on Monday, the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, noted that the hike had also “cast in very bad light our utmost good faith with regards to government explanations that it lacks funds to continue bankrolling the so-called subsidy payments as such would sooner than later cripple the entire economy, throw the country into severe economic crisis and cause loss of jobs in millions.”

The statement, titled ‘The NLC condemns and rejects the recent increase in the price of petrol’, said that Nigerians could not be made to suffer for the failure of the government to manage the refineries.

The congress stressed that the nation would not have been in a precarious situation if the government had been alive to its responsibilities, noting that there was a limit to what the citizens could tolerate.

It asked the government to declare a state of emergency in the downstream petroleum sector and as a follow up to this, enter into contract refining with refineries closer home.

This, the NLC pointed out, would ensure that the cost of supplying crude oil was negotiated away from the prevailing international market rate and thus lead to reduced landing cost.

The congress underlined the need for the government to stamp out the smuggling of petroleum products out of the country and prosecute smugglers.

The union emphasised the need for a review of the process of licensing modular and big refineries rather plan to depend on Dangote refinery.