The Nigeria’s multiple opposition political parties: Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has accused leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) of accepting the fuel subsidy removal and the eventual increase in its pump price, only to turn round and ask Nigerians to begin a nation-wide strike against the price increase on Wednesday.
The opposition who cautioned Nigerians not be deceived into embarking on industrial action, asked Nigerians not to trust the Labour unions as they have been compromised.
In a statement jointly signed today, Sunday, the CNPP National Chairman, Alhaji Balarabe Musa and the Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, insisted that the planned strike action scheduled for Wednesday won’t last beyond Friday as the labour unions were using the strike as a ploy to scuttled genuine actions against the increment in pump price as they did in 2012.
“What the labour unions are doing now by calling for a strike action was what they did in 2012 during the Occupy Nigeria protests in response to similar increase in the pump price of petrol under former President Goodluck Jonathan. The labour unions later scuttled the action by purportedly entering into an agreement with the then government on behalf of Nigerians and ended up fixing the pump price of petrol at N97.00 per litre.
“Nigerians must be beware that the planned strike action scheduled for Wednesday won’t last beyond Friday as the labour leaders have been compromised and are using the call as a ploy to deceive the masses.
“We have it on good authority that the labour leaders have compromised. Recall that the labour leaders were at a meeting where the decision to inflict more and more pains on the already impoverished Nigerian people by increasing the pump price was taken and never protested against it. Why the sudden U-turn by the same labour leaders?
“The ever increasing hardship enthroned on Nigerians by the current government cannot be tolerated. The federal government and its labour collaborators must be told that the CNPP, the masses and the civil society shall occupy Nigeria until the reversal of the pump price of patrol. Enough of more and more suffering under the guise of fuel subsidy removal.” [myad]