According to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the recent increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, is just one among several instances where successive governments have disregarded the rights of Nigerians without any sense of remorse.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) expressed its concern that the recent fuel price hike and other policies that adversely affect the poor are being used as weapons against Nigerian workers and the masses.
According to the NLC, the act of impoverishing workers and pushing millions of people into abysmal living conditions cannot be justified as sound economic management.
During the opening ceremony of a four-day organizing program for state council leaders of the NLC in Lagos, President Joe Ajaero, who was represented by Prince Adewale Adeyanju, the Deputy President of Congress and President-General of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, stated that the Nigerian state has effectively declared war on the working class and the general population.
Ajaero emphasized that trade union leaders must not abandon the Nigerian people and workers to their uncertain fate. Instead, they should unite in the struggle to advocate for and protect the rights of Nigerian workers and the general population.
The NLC President urged labor leaders nationwide to come together in solidarity, ensuring the articulation and preservation of the rights of Nigerian workers and the people as a whole.
“All hope that one day, workers in Nigeria will reclaim their natural rights that have been forcefully abridged and trampled upon by uninformed employers and those in government who ought to have been in the vanguard of guaranteeing such rights.”
He lamented that “Various governments in Nigeria have mercilessly trampled upon the rights of Nigerians without any feeling of remorse”.
“Politicians have ganged up against the workers and the masses without any consequences”.
“It is important to note that governance in Nigeria is always spoken about in paradoxical dimensions”.
“Governments are rooted in the lives of the people and thus ought to pursue service to them. But in our nation, governance has become an instrument for inflicting pain and suffering on workers and the masses”.
“Recently, we have all witnessed the steep, heartless hike in the price of PMS by the Federal Government under the guise of the so-called petroleum subsidy withdrawal without making alternative arrangements to cushion the expected and well-known impact of such unconscionable action”.
“This policy direction ought to have been the product of dialogue amongst stakeholders but was shunned by a democratically elected government that rather believes in machoism that has since left the economy reeling”.
“That clearly shows that the Nigerian State, from all corners, is clearly at war with the people and workers”.
“They have mounted pressure on the people at all fronts and have robbed the people repeatedly, even when the people have turned the other cheek, refusing to acknowledge that governance must go hand-in-hand with social justice if it is to have any meaning”.
“This onslaught, comrades, is not relenting and would continue if nothing is done to mediate it immediately.”