The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has cautioned that ahead of the 2023 general election, any political party that goes around saying that they plan to sell our refineries, remove subsidies, and further oppress long-suffering Nigerians, should be ready to defend such stance to Nigerians at the campaigns.

The NLC in a statement by its President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba said the position of the NLC and organized Labour, regarding petroleum subsidy has not changed.

The statement by the NLC was in a response to an inquiry by Festus Keyamo (SAN), the Minister of State for Labour and Employment and the Campaign Spokesperson of the Presidential Campaign of All Progressive Congress (APC)

Mr Keyamo had in a post on Twitter challenged the NLC over its seemingly support for the position of the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi on the heated issue of the removal of petrol subsidies.

But Wabba in his statement on Saturday said, “the major demand in the Nigerian Workers Charter of Demands is that local public refineries must work. We have also demanded that we must stop 100% importation of refined petroleum products.

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“The NLC and indeed the Labour movement in Nigeria has 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 atrocious to buy from abroad at very expensive prices a product that a country like ours can easily produce at home.”

He explained that in furtherance of the avowed position of the NLC on issues-based campaign in the run-up to the 2023 general election, Nigerian workers through a number of painstaking processes have been able to articulate a Nigerian Workers’ Charter of Demands which the NLC and TUC are using to engage the political process.

He explained further, “At the heart of our demand on the management of Nigeria’s mineral resources, especially our downstream petroleum subsector is the issue of Production Economy. We believe that the rescue of Nigeria from the current ruinous path of Consumption Economy to Production Economy is the only way to resolve Nigeria’s economic nightmares of massive depletion of scarce foreign exchange reserve; continuous devaluation of the Naira; significant jobs hemorrhage and destruction, deepening of poverty and downturn in the living standards of our people.

“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 September 12 -13, 2022 hosted a National Retreat of the leadership cadres in our movement. At the retreat, the Labour Party and Organized 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, and further oppress long-suffering Nigerians, they should be ready to defend such stance to Nigerians at the campaigns. The NLC, Organized Labour, and Labour Party position has not changed. It only got amplified!”