Nigerian Labour Congress Says Planned Strike Over Hikes In Electricity And Fuel Prices Must Hold

The Nigeria Labour Congress NLC has said that come Monday, September 28, it will be embarking on a nationwide protest over the increment in fuel and electricity prices.

The organised labour on September 16 gave the Federal government two weeks ultimatum to reverse the increase on both commodities or face a nationwide protest from September 28. Read here.

Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, September 22, NLC President, Ayuba Wabba said the protest action was inevitable since the federal government has refused to reverse the increase in electricity and fuel prices.

According to Wabba, the privatization of the electricity sub-sector, seven years down the line, have not yielded any positive report.

“Whereas the entire privatisation process, the entire sector was sold at about N400 billion. We are also surprised that government, within the last four years, injected N1.5 trillion over and above the amount that was used to sell these very important assets.

And therefore NEC came to the conclusion that the entire privatisation process has failed and the electricity hike is actually a process of continued exploitation of Nigerians.”

On the increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, Wabba said the move will only make life harder for the average Nigerian.

“On the issue of the refineries and also the increase in the pump price of PMS, these have further eroded the gains of N30,000 minimum wage,” he said.

In the light of all of these, NEC decided to endorse the two-week ultimatum given to the federal government to try to reverse those obnoxious decisions. And also pronounce that the action proposed by the Central Working Committee is hereby endorsed by the NEC that 28 of September will be a date that those actions will be challenged by Nigerian workers, our civil society allies and also other labour centres.” he said

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