Payment Of N8,000 To 12 million Nigerians Insulting, Makes Mockery Of Our Patience–NLC

…Says N70bn Approved For Lawmakers Reckless, Insensitive

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed disappointment over the N8,000 fund to be disbursed as palliative to 12 million poor Nigerians to cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy.

This is coming barely a week after President Bola Tinubu announced that the $800 million palliative from the World Bank would be disbursed to 12 million Nigerians in six months.

Reacting to the announcement, the congress in a communique signed by its president, Joe Ajaero on Tuesday said it was misled by President Bola Tinubu through the inauguration of the National Steering Committee.

He alleged that the committee which was supposed to be inaugurated in June, was stalled.

Recall that THE WHISTLER had earlier reported that a committee has been set up and given an eight-week deadline ending August 2023, to decide on the minimum wage as a result of fuel subsidy removal.

Ajaero said “We have restrained ourselves from making further comments publicly on the vexatious issues around the recent but unfortunate unilateral hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

“However, the government of Nigeria seems to have been misled into believing that resorting to impunity and imperiousness in governance in a democracy is a beneficial option as it pursues its stated and unstated objectives.

“The proposal to pay N8,000 to each of the so-called 12 million poorest Nigerian households for six months insults our collective intelligence and makes a mockery of our patience and abiding faith in social dialogue which the government may have alluded to albeit pretentiously.

“Also the proposal to pay National Assembly members the sum of N70bn and the Judiciary N36bn is the most insensitive, reckless, and brazen diversion of our collective patrimony into the pockets of public officers whose sworn responsibility it is to protect our nation’s treasury.

“These steps taken can only be described as robbing the people of Nigeria to pay and feed the rich.

“The actions of the federal government show that it does not have trust and confidence in the very Presidential Committee that it set up to take a comprehensive look at the consequences of the Petroleum Product price hike and make recommendations on the way forward to ameliorate its negative impacts upon the citizenry.

“Also, It is important to inform Nigerians that despite having shown our readiness to commence work in the Committees, the federal government which convenes the meetings is yet to inaugurate the National Steering Committee thus stalling the Work of the Proposed Committees.”

Ajaero also revealed that Congress do not have confidence in how the data for the never changing 12m poorest households was generated nor do they have confidence in the mechanisms being pursued for the distribution of the cash transfers.

He, however, reiterated that NLC would not want to continue to be part of the usual charade of Committees with outcomes that are never implemented.

To this effect, the union said, “If the government does not want to stop these fortuitous actions that it is pursuing in the name of palliatives, we will be forced to constructively review our engagement with the government on this vexatious issue and take matters in our own hands.”