Following some verbal attack against Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) from Festus Keyamo of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), who is a serving junior minister in the Buhari Administration, the Nigerian workers under the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has come in Obi`s defence.
BASIC FACTS
- NLC President, Ayu Wabba explains the union support for Obi on his positon on subsidy.
- Nigerian workers under the NLC have also said that they want a production based economy.
- The labour union in their press release also insists that Nigerian refineries must work.
WHAT WE KNOW
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has insisted that Nigeria’s public refineries must be made to work and the country must stop the importation of refined petrol before it can consider the removal of petrol subsidy.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said this in a statement signed and made available to journalists at the weekend in Abuja.
The NLC statement was obviously a reaction to an earlier one by Festus Keyamo, a spokesperson for the presidential campaign of the ruling party, APC. Festus Keyamo who used activism as a ladder to political prominence had tasked the NLC to explain its stance on the statement by Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, that he would remove petrol subsidy if elected.
Ayuba Wabba said the NLC had painstaking processes and had articulated a Nigerian Workers’ Charter of Demands which the organised labour would use to engage the political process.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba said the NLC wanted a ‘production economy’ for Nigeria in the handling of its natural resources.
He said that the congress believed that the rescue of Nigeria from the current path of a ‘consumption economy’ to a ‘production economy’ was the only way to resolve Nigeria’s economic nightmares of massive depletion of scarce foreign exchange reserves.
He said this would resolve the continuous devaluation of the Naira, significant jobs reduction, poverty and downturn in the living standards of the people.
Mr Wabba said the NLC’s position had not changed but only “got amplified.”
Peter Obi of the Labour Party, have consistently said there was no reason the country’s refineries should not be put to use. He also pledged to encourage the private sector to build more refineries.
NOTABLE QUOTES
NLC President in the statement at the weekend said, “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,’’ he said.
“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,” he added.
APC’s Festus Keyamo who spoke after the NLC position was made public queried the union,
“Before adopting Mr Peter Obi as its candidate, did the leadership of the NLC have a discussion with him on the issue of removal of fuel subsidy?
“If they did have that discussion, did Mr Peter Obi agree to back down on the issue of subsidy removal? Was that a basis for supporting him? If he did not back down on the issue, did organised Labour agree with him?
“If no such discussion is held, does it mean the leadership of the NLC now fully supports the removal of fuel subsidy? Or will that not be reckless of the NLC to adopt a candidate without thoroughly interrogating the candidate on his policies as they affect the Nigerian workers or the masses? The NLC must make a public statement and come clean on this,” Mr Keyamo said.
Mr Keyamo argued that “if the excuse is that Mr Peter Obi has said that the money saved will be used in other critical areas of the economy, how is that different from what Buhari’s Government is also saying?”
CATCH UP
Peter Obi in a recent interview with the CNN argued that:
“There is no reason why we should not encourage the private sector to build refineries and operate them. And they are not rocket science. You can use today to decide to remove fuel subsidies and use the resources to support critical areas of production,” Mr Obi said.
Recall that at the NLC retreat last Monday and Tuesday, the Labour Party and NLC had adopted the workers charter as the manifesto of the Labour Party, who presidential candidate Peter Obi growing popularity has been a source of worry to other presidential aspirants, especially the ruling APC and main opposition PDP.
After the retreat, Festus Keyamo of the APC had queried the NLC support for Obi inspite of Peter Obi stance on fuel subsidy removal which has been a tony issue over the years
TAKEAWAY
For APC to query NLC support for Labour Party begs the question. For 7 years the APC have not kick started the fixing of the refinery.
If the ruling pretend not to know, we can remind them the difference is Peter Obi willingness to not just fix the refineries but make Nigeria a production rather than import driven economy.
Much as we would want to interrogate how the Labour Party wants to revive the economy, it is pertinent to let the APC know that the unpopularity of their party is largely cost by their poor performance in the last 7 years.
