Fuel Subsidy Removal: NLC Accuses FG Of Jettisoning Presidential C’ttee On Palliative

The Organised Labour yesterday accused the Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government of disbanding the Presidential Steering Committee it established to devise palliatives, among other things, to mitigate the effects of subsidy removal, which has harmed Nigerians’ socioeconomic well-being, particularly workers.

Speaking through the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, Organised Labour, on the other hand, urged the government to declare a state of emergency on insecurity and address the transportation challenges confronting workers and other Nigerians in the wake of the removal of petrol subsidies.

Dr Tommy Okon, President of ASCSN and a member of the Presidential Steering Committee on Cost of Governance, expressed disappointment with the way President Bola Tinubu’s administration was handling the planned palliatives to cushion the effects of petrol subsidy removal on Nigerians, describing it as dictatorial while jettisoning the committee the government set up in the aftermath of the subsidy removal.

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He said “The policy of cash transfer by the federal government is not the best for the economy.

President Tinubu should have waited for the fuel subsidy committee’s report before acting on palliatives. Why were we (organized Labour) invited to serve on the subsidy withdrawal palliative committee if our input would be ignored? I am a member of the subcommittee on governance costs. I can tell you right now that we have never met. We are quite dissatisfied.

“The cash transfer policy is an International Monetary Fund, IMF, and World Bank idea. In fact, it was N5, 000 the IMF and World gave the government as template. When the government brought it to our meeting with them, we rejected it. Even if it N20, 000 or more, it can’t solve anything. How can the IMF and the World Bank be borrowing us money and also telling us how to spend it, not even in the productive sector of the economy, but to share to some people based on the IMF and World Bank’s template.

In response to the government’s recent proclamation of a state of emergency on food, he stated that the designation would have little or no influence unless the country’s rising insecurity was addressed.

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He said “Mr. President has declared a state of emergency on food. But that would not guarantee food security because farmers are being chased away from their farms. In some parts of Niger State, for example, farmers are being made to pay terrorists to access their farms. Labour will also want to see a palliative that addresses the transportation difficulty faced by Nigerians as a result of the hike in petrol pump prices which has triggered unprecedented increases in transportation fares across the country. So, if the government focuses on mass transportation, such move will have a positive spillover effect that will cushion the challenges associated with the removal of fuel subsidy.

“The major challenge we are having now is on transportation, because once it is taken care of, it will reduce the cost of goods and services. Alternatively, the government can also cluster those in the informal sector, who are into productive venture, and then pump in money into them; that will have a turn-over effect that will make them employers of labour, which can also checkmate and reduce unemployment. It can also give them the capital they need and economic strength, which is money.”

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