The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) criticized President Bola Tinubu‘s palliative measures announced on Monday night to cushion the sting of the removal of petrol subsidies on Nigerians, saying the programs to be implemented by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government are completely out of touch with economic realities and hardships currently faced by poor citizens.
In a statement issued on Monday, hours after the President’s special broadcast to Nigerians outlining his promises to ease residents’ suffering, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said “the promises and assurances made by President Tinubu is not the silver bullet that Nigerians expected”.
“The speech indeed appears to be out of touch with reality and anomalous with the hardship and suffering that most Nigerians are going through now,” the NLC leader said.
Tinubu revoked the petrol subsidy during his epic inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, with the price of a litre of petrol rising from N184 to over N620 and food prices and general inflation skyrocketing at an unprecedented rate.
Tinubu committed to review workers’ pay and the minimum wage in his Monday speech.
He also announced a N75 billion palliative for the manufacturing sector, stating that 75 enterprises will benefit over a nine-month period beginning in the third quarter of 2023 and ending in the first quarter of the following year.
The President also emphasized the administration’s acknowledgment of micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, as well as the informal sector, as growth drivers.
Tinubu then announced a N125 billion investment to revitalize “this very important sector.”
Tinubu said that N200 billion would be invested as part of its intentions to assist the cultivation of 500,000 hectares of farmland, and all-year-round farming practice will continue.
According to him, provision has been made “to invest N100 billion between now and March 2024 to acquire 3000 units of 20-seater CNG-fuelled buses.”
However, the NLC stated that the President was expected to inform Nigerians of his plans to resurrect public refineries that have been dormant for many years, but he remained entirely mute on the subject.
If the government does not act, the union has announced a nationwide strike beginning August 2, 2023.
