Following the recent hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, commonly known as petrol, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has come out to claim that it was one of many ways successive governments have trampled on the rights of Nigerians without remorse.
NLC pointed out that the fuel price hike and other perceived anti-poor policies are nothing but weapons of war against the Nigerian workers and masses.
According to NLC, poor economic management does not in any way resemble impoverishing employees and forcing millions more into a life of misery.
In an address at the opening ceremony of a four-day organising programme for leaders of the state councils of NLC in Lagos, President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, said from all intents and purposes, the Nigerian state had declared war on the working people and the masses of Nigeria.
Represented by the Deputy President of Congress and President-General of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, in the programme supported by the American Solidarity Centre, Ajaero noted that trade union leaders must not abandon the Nigerian people and workers to their fate.
The NLC President pointed out that labour leaders across the country ‘must all join hands in the struggle for the articulation and protection of the rights of Nigerian workers and people.’
‘All hope that one day, workers of 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 pains and suffering on workers and masses.
‘Recently, we are 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 which 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 pressures 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.’
Meanwhile, the NLC and the federal government are currently negotiating a new minimum wage increase.