‘We feel betrayed’ — NLC demands reversal of petrol price hike

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says it feels betrayed by the federal government over the “clandestine increases” in the price of petrol.

On Tuesday, TheCable observed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had increased the price of petrol across its retail outlets.

At an NNPC filling station in the Berger axis of Lagos, the product’s price was increased to N855 per litre—from about N600.

In a statement, Joe Ajaero, the NLC president, said organised labour accepted N70,000 as minimum wage in July due to the government’s promise not to increase the petrol price.

“We are filled with a deep sense of betrayal as the federal government clandestinely increases the pump price of PMS,” the NLC statement reads.

“One of the reasons for accepting N70,000 as the national minimum wage was the understanding that the pump price of PMS would not be increased even as we knew that N70,000 was not sufficient.

“We recall vividly when Mr. President gave us the devil’s alternatives to choose from: either N250,000 as minimum wage (subject to the rise of the pump price between N1,500 and N2,000) or N70,000 (at old PMS rates); we opted for the latter because we could not bring ourselves to accept further punishment on Nigerians.

“But here we are, barely one month after and with the government yet to commence payment of the new national minimum wage, confronted by a reality we cannot explain.”

Ajaero said the government should reverse the pump price of petrol across the country and retract the 250 percent tariff hike in electricity.

He said the labour congress will meet to make appropriate decisions in reaction to the stance of the federal government.

“On our part, we stand resolute with the people and will neither be distracted nor intimidated by the government or its security agencies,” Ajaero said.

“We insist that the government cannot criminalise protests or basic rights in the domain of the citizenry.

“Accordingly, we demand the immediate reversal of the latest increase in the pump of PMS across the country, the release of all those incarcerated or being prosecuted on the assumption of having participated in the recent protests; halt the indiscriminate arrest and detention of citizens on trumped-up charges; reversal of the 250% tariff hike in electricity; stop to the hijack of the duties of the ministry of labour and employment; end to policies that engender hunger and insecurity; and halt to government’s culture of terror, fear, and lying.”