BREAKING: NLC To Commence Nationwide Protest, Strike, Fixes Date

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has fixed a date to commence nationwide protest over the federal government plan to increase the pump price of petrol by 2022.

To this end, it has mobil­ised its members to standby for a nationwide protest as from 27th January 2021.

NLC noted that should the proposed price take effect before the date scheduled for the protest, it would immediate­ly mobilise members to shut down services without delay.

This was contained in a communique signed by Pres­ident and General Secretary of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, and Comrade Em­manuel Ugboaja, issued at the end of its Central Working Committee (CWC)/National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held in Abuja.

According to the leader­ship of Congress, the NEC insists that any further in­crease in petrol would “ex­pose Nigerian workers and the generality of the citi­zenry to acute deprivation, hardship and suffering as it would worsen the already established trend of hyperin­flation in the country.

“That the genesis of the cri­sis in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sub-sector espe­cially as it relates to the petrol pump price regime could be linked to a Policy of Importa­tion Based Pricing Template for Refined Petroleum Prod­ucts as against Local Produc­tion Based Pricing Template;

“That as long as the pricing of refined petroleum products is based on Importation Pric­ing Template which is heav­ily dependent on a volatile foreign exchange rate heavi­ly skewed against the Naira, the price of petrol and other refined petroleum products will continue to rise beyond the reach of average Nigerian workers and citizens; and

“That the foregoing in­formed the traditional posi­tion of the Congress to reject an incessant increase in the pump price of petrol which is usually disguised as de­regulation or removal of fuel subsidy. The NEC, therefore, condemned plans by the Fed­eral Government to increase the pump price of petrol.

The NEC, therefore, re­solved to reject and resist the planned increase in the pump price of petrol by the Federal Government as it described it as extremely insensitive to the acute hardship being experi­enced by Nigerian workers and people; that Government should promote local capacity to refine petroleum products for domestic use.”