Only way to remove petrol subsidy, get refineries working – NLC insists

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has reaffirmed its resolve that the only way the federal government can remove petrol subsidy is to set the refineries in motion for local production.
NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, in a statement in Abuja on Saturday, responded to the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, (SAN), Spokesperson of the presidential campaign of All Progressives Congress (APC), challenging the NLC to come out clean on its stand on the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi’s decision to remove fuel subsidy, if elected.
The NLC President maintained that the NLC painstaking processed and articulated a Nigerian Workers’ Charter of Demands to be adopted by the organised labour in engaging the political process.
Wabba declared: “A major demand in the Nigerian Workers Charter of Demands is that our local public refineries must work.
“We have also demanded that we must stop 100 per cent importation of refined petroleum products.
“The NLC and, indeed, the labour movement in Nigeria, had over many decades been vehemently consistent that the only way to address the issue of the so-called petrol subsidies is to get our refineries to work.
“The logic is very simple: it is not economical to buy from abroad at very expensive prices a product that a country like ours can easily produce at home.”
Wabba insisted that NLC major demand on the management of Nigeria’s mineral resources, especially the downstream petroleum sub-sector, is a production economy.
The NLC President acknowledged that the rescue of Nigeria from the current path of Consumption Economy to Production Economy is the only way to resolve Nigeria’s economic nightmares of massive depletion of scarce foreign exchange reserve.
This, Wabba emphasized, would resolve the continuous devaluation of the Naira; significant jobs reduction, poverty and downturn in the living standards of the people.
The NLC President further stated: “In a determined effort to popularise the positions in the Nigerian Workers Charter of Demands, the NLC and TUC at the behest of the Labour Party on Monday and Tuesday hosted a National Retreat of the leadership cadres in our movement.
“At the retreat, the Labour Party and Organised Labour in Nigeria adopted and mainstreamed the Workers Charter of Demands into the Manifesto of the Labour Party.
“This is in line with our persuasion that issue-based campaign anchored on the manifesto of political parties should drive Nigeria’s political process.
“If any political party goes around saying that they plan to sell our refineries, remove subsidies, they should be ready to defend such stance to Nigerians at the campaigns.”