NLC to commence nationwide protests against petrol and electricity increase on Sept 28
Labour wants the government to fix the nation's refineries before deregulating the oil sector.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress Ayuba Philibus Wabba (center) leads anti-government protesters during a march in Abuja, Nigeria on February 9, 2017. (Reuters)
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Petrol went from N145/liter to N162/liter; with electricity tariff going from about N30.23 per kWh to about N62.33 per kWh in the first week of September.
The federal government says it no longer has the money to subsidise petrol and that it makes no economic sense to continue to subsidise a privatized electricity sector.
Labour kicks
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The National Executive Council (NEC) of the NLC has just endorsed the decision of the Central Working Committee (CWC) which resolved to commence a nationwide protest on September 28.
Talks between organised labour and government have so far yielded little by way of concessions from both sides.
![President Muhammadu Buhari holds court during a swearing-in ceremony at the State House [Twitter/@BashirAhmaad]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'790'%20height%3D'527'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "President Muhammadu Buhari holds court during a swearing-in ceremony at the State House [Twitter/@BashirAhmaad]")
President Muhammadu Buhari holds court during a swearing-in ceremony at the State House [Twitter/@BashirAhmaad]
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Last week, labour issued a two-week ultimatum to the government, demanding a reversal of the decision to hike prices with immediate effect.
Labour is asking the federal government to urgently repair the nation's moribund refineries instead.
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Oil rich Nigeria imports the petrol it consumes, with four local refineries functioning at a fraction of their installed capacities or not functioning at all.
Ending the corruption-riddled subsidy regime was always going to be a politically dangerous move -- a string of rebounds in global oil prices could rouse the opposition and test the administration’s resilience.
Uche Secondus is Chairman of the opposition PDP (Thisday)
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Previous attempts, noticeably in 2012, to wean Nigerians off cheap gasoline led to major anti-government protests on the streets.
The federal government says it has spent close to N10 trillion on petrol subsidy in 10 years.
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