The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade
Union Congress (TUC) have warned against any
move by the government to remove subsidy
from petroleum products.
Nigeria’s National Assembly had passed the 2015
appropriation bill without allocating any money
for subsidy payment.
Speaking on Wednesday, Deputy President of the
NLC and chairman of the joint May Day
celebration of the NLC and TUC, Peter Adeyemi,
told journalists that organised Labour believed
that government had never subsidised petroleum
products.
The Labour leader lamented that the bane of the
sector had been corruption, pointing out that past
government tried without success to address the
issue.
He said: “If you are asking whether we will back
the removal of fuel subsidy, the answer is no. It
is not as easy as that. You know that it has been a
very contentious issue over the years. We have
always said that there is nothing like subsidy. It is
all about corruption.
“Let me take your mind back and say that this
same issue has been something that numerous
government have embarked upon without an
end. During the Olusegun Obasanjo’s
government, this exercise was embarked upon
by the government about 11 times and both the
NLC and the TUC engaged the government.
“So, it is like the more you look, the less
you see. For us in Labour, we are not going
to support that because it is outside our
mandate as leaders. We hope that the
incoming government, in a desperate bid to
look for money, will not look for money in
the wrong place”.