The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has kicked against what it described as the deceptive move of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government.
The spokesperson of the group, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, in a statement issued Thursday, said it observed that on every occasion, the NLC would deceive the public into believing they are protecting their interests, only to betray the course and negotiate with the government at the expense of the suffering masses.
It said the first instance was the NLC protests over the harsh economic policies of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s government in February 2017 which came to an abrupt end without achieving any results and no convincing explanation to the public.
It said, “Then came the September 2018 strike, which was also terminated after the NLC met with government officials and compromised the effort with no effect.
“The worst scenario was the October 2020 organised labour plan to shut down the entire economy in protest over the increase in the pump price of petrol and a hike in electricity tariff.”
The group noted the strike was called off at the last minute after a meeting between government officials and labour leaders in Abuja.
The group stressed that it took exception to the move by labour at that time, describing it as a huge trade-off and compromise in its strongly worded letter of October 6, 2021, to the former President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, expressing disappointment in the labour leadership, for deliberately suspending an action meant to check the arbitrary hike in fuel prices by the Buhari administration.
“Now that NLC wants to take the nation for granted once more, we demand that it should first of all explain its whereabouts at the time the budget was prepared, presented, defended by the government of the former president Muhammadu Buhari and passed by the 9th National Assembly without the provision for subsidy,” it said.
According to Abdul Azeez,”We call on the new administration of President Bola Tinubu to handle this obviously dicey situation with utmost wisdom and compassion so that the innocent public is not made victim.
“We call the attention of the Tinubu administration to be vigilant over the latent trap set for it with the subsidy issue by the outgone government aiming to set it on a collision course with the public early in the day.
“We therefore advise government to deploy maximum wisdom, and caution to chart a workable means of dealing with the bad situation deliberately thrown on its laps in such a way that no one gets blamed”
