The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) yesterday stated that the Nigerian people would not be deterred by the provision of hefty security vote in its determination to resist oppression.
Also, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) would be meeting tomorrow in Abuja to deliberate on the strategies for a mass protest against President Goodluck Jonathan’s anti-people policies.
The TUC president-general, Mr. Peter Esele, and the general secretary, John Kolawole, in a statement entitled “2012 budget of impunity,” said they had viewed the direction of the 2012 budget as presented by President Jonathan and explained by the minister of finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, and they found it “sad and vexing”.
The congress said the present situation was not unexpected, judging by the economic team which surround the president and their antecedents.
It said it was sad that the president’s economic team prefer to discuss with only those who would support their plan of further impoverishing the Nigerian people.
The TUC also described the 2012 budget as a project of “impunity, insensitivity and alienation of the people; a separation of the state from the people of the state.”
The statement reads in part: “TUC is more worried because the President has removed all hopes of redemption as it has not in any way mentioned how the people will be saved from corruption and strangulation by capitalists made up of people in the corridor of power and their friends.
“It even more sad to note that nowhere in the entire budget did he mention what government will do or any concern shown on how government will halt the pain of overtaxing of the people, economic self-sufficiency in meeting the shortage of supply over demand in petroleum products, reverse of importation of the product through the establishment of refineries, and other factors for efficient distribution of these products.
“However, very glaring is sufficient provision of security vote to muscle the people who government expects to react to the fun people in power enjoy from punishing the people. We shall not be intimidated and shall not let the people down.
“We reject removal of fuel subsidy without adequate implementation of the following: Probe into corruption of the system of fuel importation, repairs of existing refineries and building new ones, improvement of the Atlas Cove to remove bottlenecks; palliatives, temporarily or otherwise, to meet challenges, infrastructural development, and improvement of electricity supply”.
The statement, however, said that labour still keeps its doors open for dialogue: “We call on the good people of Nigeria to join us to say no to oppression hoisted through a retrogressive Bretton Wood inspired budget.
“We all must prove that we matter, when the matter of better life and comfort is being caged to please a class. TUC and 99% of the people have no choice than to challenge the oppressive 1% who formulated this budget.
“We implore the masses to remain calm, be alert and get ready for legitimate action to halt the removal of fuel subsidy without sound alternative.”
Meanwhile, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has handed down a seven-point charter which President Jonathan must fulfil before embarking on the controversial fuel subsidy removal.
The national publicity secretary of the CNPP, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, in a communiqué after a meeting with civil society groups in Abuja, said: “Nigerians are saying: Build new refineries; for if you don’t have confidence that Nigerians can manage refineries, we don’t have confidence that you can manage the withdrawal proceeds!”
He also urged the president to stop the rampant corruption in fuel importation; If the president can’t stop rampant corruption in fuel importation, he cannot guarantee the proceeds to be withdrawn, he said.
According to him, removal of fuel subsidy is a road Nigerians had passed severally since 1978, stressing that the serial promises made were broken and the pains of serial removal of fuel subsidy have remained permanent.
The CNPP scribe however warned the president not to push Nigerians to the street: “For we went to the street to make you president and would not like to go to the street to remove you as president.
“All we are saying:? strident call on all patriots to join the mother of mass action.
“Finally, we resolved also to work in league with the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and other patriots to resist the inordinate resolve of President Jonathan, against public will to remove fuel subsidy”.
Meanwhile, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) caucus in the House of Representatives has threatened a showdown with President Jonathan, should he go ahead with the proposed removal of fuel subsidy.
The CPC lawmakers said they could not fold their arms and be dumb while section 14(2) of the 1999 Constitution is being trampled upon. They said that Nigerians must not waver in what it described as “the face of the recalcitrant posture of the Executive that is hell-bent on forcing down the subsidy withdrawal sham down our throat”.
The caucus said President Jonathan’s silent stance on removal of fuel subsidy during his budget presentation at the National Assembly was a silent declaration of war against the masses.
The statement signed and made available to LEADERSHIP by Hon. Datti Garba Muhammad, CPC caucus leader and deputy minority whip in the House reads in part:
“Throughout the speech of Mr. President, he was clever by half by deceptively avoiding the issue of fuel subsidy which, from all indications, has been tacitly withdrawn. This is the height of insensitivity, a betrayal of trust and a silent declaration of war against the masses.
“The president’s postulation, therefore, that the economy will collapse in two years’ time, is nothing but a doomsday prophecy of a messiah without a mission and a vision.
Having depleted the nation’s external reserves to prosecute the 2011 general elections, he is desperately in need of funds to execute a hidden agenda.”
Hon. Muhammad said, ordinarily, Nigerians would not have blinked their eyes on the issue of fuel subsidy, if government had outlined measures to put the domestic refineries in optimum operational capacity and implemented the national minimum wage for workers before withdrawing the mystical subsidy. “Perhaps, if our refineries have been functional, may be the pump price of fuel might even drop below N65/litre.”
The lawmakers lamented that “The education sector will still beleaguered as a result of the non-implementation of FGN/ ASUU agreement which has remain protracted, the embarrassing state of our universities in global rankings, not being able to meet the 2015 EFA goal and reversing the current trend of declining performance in public examinations.”
“What has been taken away from fuel subsidy has been given to Security. As we are not facing any threat of external aggression, it is scandalous to allocate such a whopping and eye-popping vote that equals the combined allocation of four strategic sectors, namely, Power, health, agriculture and education. This is incredible. Really, Government has no idea on how to organize and put in place an effective internal security and surveillance network to confront the menace of Boko Haram. What is happening on our highways & even within some cities in the guise of security checks is nothing but a disgrace to the nation,” it stated
It described the “youWin” project empowerment scheme as too urbane in outlook without grassroots perspective and a duplication of the mandate of the NDE, which makes it a conduit pipe for siphoning state funds.
It also warned that banning or raising of duties on rice or wheat importation was not the necessary stimulus to revive the long-neglected agricultural sector which before the advent of oil, had been the mainstay of the nation’s economy with greater multiplier effect on the common man.