The current hike in the pump price has prompted the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to announce that it will go on statewide strike on Wednesday.
When the NLC's emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting ended on Friday in Abuja, Mr. Joe Ajaero, the organization's president, spoke to reporters.
Ajaero stated that if the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) does not reverse the present blueprint about the increase in fuel price brought on by the removal of fuel subsidy, Labor will go on strike.
In light of this, the Nigeria Labour Congress and all of its affiliates have decided to withdraw their services and start a nationwide protest if by Wednesday the NNPCL, a private limited liability company that illegally announced the price regime in the oil sector, does not reverse itself.
Even as a privately owned business, the NNPCL lacks the exclusive right to set rates.
As a result, he stated, "The NLC instructs all of its state councils and industrial unions to start mobilizing right away to ensure that the action is carried out.
Ajaero added that until President Bola Tinubu assembles his cabinet, the ongoing negotiations between the NLC and the Federal Government could not yield any fruitful outcomes.
According to him, it's critical that the NLC engage in negotiations with a fully constituted administration to ensure that any decisions made will be binding on it.
According to him, it is instructive that such negotiations might not be valid until a government is properly constituted and the individuals who would negotiate with labour are those individuals with a mandate and the competence to commit the government of the day.
However, in order for labor to continue its engagement with the government, the NLC president stated that the old pump price of gasoline must be reinstated.
In order to identify the recipients of what he called the system's deception, he also asked for a comprehensive probe into the fuel subsidy program.
The current administration should have addressed this, according to Ajaero, rather than deciding to completely stop providing subsidy.
Recently, NNPCL set a new pump pricing for gasoline that varied depending on the country's regions from N488 to N570 per liter.
President Bola Tinubu revealed the federal government's decision to end fuel subsidies during his inauguration on Monday. The president proclaimed that "fuel subsidy is gone" in his inaugural speech.
His comments caused unprecedented fuel shortages across the nation, which led the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to raise pump prices.
The abrupt removal of fuel subsidies without giving remedies to mitigate the impact has been criticized by the NLC as evidence of the government's insensitivity to the situation of the Nigerian people.
There is no turning back on the withdrawal of fuel subsidies, according to NNPCL CEO Mele Kyari on Thursday. According to the Petroleum Industry Act's stipulations, the subsidy system truly ended on February 17, 2022. The law mandates that petroleum products, in particular PMS, be priced at market rates six months after the PIA's passage, he continued.
In its appeal to the NLC to oppose the increase in gas prices, JAF urged Nigerians to oppose the elimination of subsidies.
JAF state:
"We demand that the general public reject this anti-poor strategy as well as other capitalist assaults, such as the devaluation of the naira that Tinubu has planned to inflict on the working class, young people, and the poor in accordance with the demands of the World Bank and IMF.
"The increase in gasoline prices has already made things worse economically, which was already a result of the APC government's capitalist policies. According to the group, the already exorbitantly high cost of living and the high inflation rate, which is already above 22 percent, will get worse.
