The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC says the National broadcast by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has left its members with the impression that the promises and assurances made are not the silver bullet that Nigerians expected.
A statement by NLC President, Joe Ajaero says the speech indeed appears to be out of touch with reality and not in tune with the hardship and suffering that most Nigerians are currently going through.
The NLC Notes that the opening statement by PresidentTinubu conveyed a commitment to a better and productive economy, and expected that the next line of statement would be how the present government plans to resuscitate.
Public refineries which have been lying comatose for so many years and is the major pain point in the whole subsidy narrative.
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Labour expressed dissatisfaction over the failure of President Tinubu to unmask those behind the looting of Nigeria’s commonwealth under the guise of petrol subsidy, saying It is unacceptable for the President and Commander-in-Chief to lament like ordinary Nigerians about a group that he routinely referred to in his
speech as the “elites of the elites” who have stolen so much from Nigeria.
The statement by Labour says What Nigerians expected from Mr. President is a firm commitment to bring those so-called economic saboteurs to justice and recover what they have stolen.
Labour notes that working with Organised Labour to review the national minimum wage is out of sync with what has played out since.
President Tinubu removed petrol subsidy, adding that In all the meetings scheduled by the government, Organised Labour has been forced to negotiate with empty chairs on the Federal Government’s side as the Federal Government has not matched its public promises with firm commitment to negotiate in good faith with labour.
Labour says claims of interventions by the Federal Government through palliatives, loans and conditional grants to poor Nigerians, big manufacturing concerns and small businesses and provision of CNG buses remain mere promises with nothing on ground to show.
(EDITOR: TIENABESO BIBIYE)
