President Bola Tinubu’s committee on petrol subsidy meeting with the organised labour appears to lack capacity to negotiate and expedite actions on resolving the impasse per palliative and other measures to improve Nigerians’ well-being in the short term, says NLC president Joe Ajaero.
The labour leader also cast aspersions on the social register for poor and vulnerable citizens created by the defunct regime of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
Mr Ajaero stated this at a meeting between the leadership of the organised labour and the Senate leadership led by Godswill Akpabio.
Mr Ajaero said the wage review committee had not sat two months after the removal of the subsidy.
“Part of our challenge is the issue of the committee put in place. The committee seems not to be capable. As labour, we have done negotiations with previous administrations. At no time had the chief of staff to the president, who is very busy, called to negotiate or lead negotiations and that has delayed the issues,” the NLC chief explained.
He added, “Even since our protest, another meeting has not reconvened, although the President promised that he will restructure the mechanism of engagement with government for issues to be treated fast. We had also agreed on wage award, and up till this moment, the committee on wage award is yet to sit.”
The NLC president lamented the plight of Nigerians as a result of subsidy removal without provisions to ameliorate the adverse effects on the masses.
He mentioned that while labour leaders were still deliberating on N537 per litre of fuel and court had ruled for status quo to remain, the federal government decided to increase petrol price to N620 per litre.
On the $800 million loan being sought for by the government, the NLC president urged Mr Tinubu not to use the same template of disbursement by the Buhari-Osinbajo regime.
“Nothing is yet to happen on the issue of $800 million projected to be borrowed, we have not perfected the list of the people who will benefit from it,” Mr Ajaero explained. “We should not follow the record that was used in 2019 because we have our doubts on that record and no indices have been put forward to dictate those that are termed poor.”
The Senate president commended NLC, TUC and other unions for their patience. He told them that although Mr Tinubu had saved N1 trillion by removing the subsidy regime, the president inherited a debt of over N30 trillion.
“But be rest assured that effect of fuel subsidy removal being felt by workers and in fact Nigerians would be ameliorated very soon by the federal government,” he said.
(NAN)
