A Coalition of Civil Society Organizations under the auspices of Citizens Voice Against Corruption (CIVAC) has described the suspended NLC, TUC nationwide protest unwise and self defeating.
The platform of the numerous CSOs and professional bodies said the decision to end fuel subsidy by President Ahmed Bola Tinubu is a welcome idea considering the fact that few individuals benefit from the scheme to the detriment of millions of Nigerians.
According to the group’s national coordinator, Abdulrazaq Alkali, on Thursday in Kano, the leaders of both NLC and TUC must rise up to their duties and stop doing the bidding of some few elites milking the country through the subsidy and put Nigeria’s survival first.
Alkali charge Nigerians not to heed to any call for confrontational actions which could further worsen the security situation in the country citing how some bad elements hijacked the end SARS protest to unleash mayhem and paralyzed economic activities in various parts of the country.
“If NLC and TUC leaders are not in terms with the proposed stoppage to paying the subsidy despite the glaring evidences of the failure of the scheme, they can explore other avenues to prevent high petroleum price in the country. One important option is to engage with the government to find a more suitable solution.
“For example by putting pressure on the government to revamp the three national refineries (in Kaduna, Warri and Port-Harcourt) which can play a significant role in easing the pressure on our forex reserve thus strengthening our currency. A strong Naira and local refining capacity will make the petroleum products cheap even without subsidies.
“In addition if these refineries are revamped, hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs will be created, thus creating a multiplier effect in the fight against poverty and the growth of our economy”.
He further blast some politicians including some presidential candidates in the last election attacking the policy in a bid to score cheap points despite making same promise of stopping the subsidy scheme to Nigerians if they had won.
Furthermore, Abdulrazak added that it is worthy to note that in a petroleum subsidy free system, when oil prices go low e.g. what happened in 2015-2017 Nigerians will equally pay for a much cheaper petroleum prices than they were paying in a petroleum subsidy regime.