NLC President Joe Ajaero has asked workers to go on strike next Wednesday over the removal of the petrol subsidy, despite being privy to the distressing financial figures, which justified why the subsidy ought to have been scrapped a long time ago.
My advice to perceptive workers and the Nigerian populace is simply to ignore Ajaero and his ilk. He is playing politics and is actually acting out the script of the opposition Labour Party, out to destabilize the young Tinubu administration.
Besides, one wonders whose interests Ajaero is championing when he did not oppose the position of his Labour Party and presidential candidate, who campaigned with the promise to scrap subsidies from Day One if elected.
NLC and TUC leaders knew since last November that the subsidy would be scrapped on July 1, as no provision has been made in the budget for it beyond this date. The Federal Government, which already commits 96 percent of its revenue to servicing debt, is not in any position to continue selling subsidised fuel, most of which is smuggled across our borders for criminal and obscenely unpatriotic profit.
The subsidy of fuel is no longer unsustainable, as the FG is virtually broke. Apart from its N77 trillion debt, it also owes the NNPC Limited about N2.4 trillion for past subsidies.
The Nigerian people and workers should support the government as it works out new wages and rolls out other interventions, as promised by President Tinubu, to mitigate the effects of the new fuel price.
Let’s not make ourselves pawns in the hands of the politically biassed and tainted NLC and TUC. Ajaero is no longer a labour leader. He is a politician and the leader of the Labour Party. He is no longer representing all the Nigerian workers.
