On Wednesday, the organised labour protested the deteriorating living conditions in the nation by marching to the National Assembly. According to DIRISU YAKUBU, protesters symbolic act of defying the odds to make their voices heard by pulling down the gate of the National Assembly complex.
Their patience has run out, and any hope of relief seems incredibly distant. Who could blame them, though? The least Nigerians can hope for from a new administration is a continuation of their hardships in a nation where life has all but become brutish, nasty, and short.
Truth be told, Bola Tinubu never asserted during his campaigns that the country’s troubles would end once he took office as president of Nigeria. Similar to the presidential candidates from the People’s Democratic Party and Labour Parties, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, Tinubu had pledged to end the subsidy system if elected. After only a month on the job, he fulfilled his promise. What, then, is the root of the nation’s rage?
No matter their status, many Nigerians have turned to trekking unfathomable distances to reduce the cost of commuting to their places of employment due to the hardship brought on by the removal of fuel subsidies. The price of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, rose from N534 to N617 per litre over the previous two months, driving up the cost of intra- and inter-city transportation geometrically. Not to mention the increase in the price of food and other necessities.
The National Assembly gate in Abuja was torn down on Wednesday after security personnel refused to let protesters in so they could speak with the lawmakers, but they were unable to persuade the Federal Government to change its position on the complete elimination of petrol subsidies. The protesters were led by the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Agaero, and his counterpart from the Trade Union Congress, Festus Osifo.
As they urged the government to implement practical palliative measures, protesters all over the country sang and danced out of frustration at a hardship that had shown no signs of ending. As it turned out, the palliatives that the President had announced in his Monday broadcast to the country had no effect on the tense employees.
Ajaero, who told reporters at the Unity Fountain that “nothing is stopping the protest, not even an overture from the government,” cautioned against only giving lip service to worker demands because they, in his opinion, have been the biggest victims of the subsidy removal.
He continued by saying that unless the government showed a willingness to address the issues facing the nation, organised labour would not abandon the planned mass protest.
Some of them must have felt beyond embarrassed by the Wednesday invasion of the National Assembly complex while they were interviewing ministerial nominees.
Senator Victor Umeh of Anambra Central Senatorial District criticised the Tinubu-led administration for not making adequate preparations for the effects of the subsidy removal. He asserted that the nation’s oil sector had suffered for many years from the constant reliance on market forces and that the local refinery of crude oil remained the most practical solution.
While Umeh acknowledged that the removal of subsidies was a positive step and urged Nigerians to have patience while waiting for the Federal Government to act, the lawmaker also urged the Tinubu administration to think about overhauling the country’s four refineries in the interim rather than relying on imported fuel to meet local demand.
The Labour Party candidate Umeh added that the palliatives offered by the Commander-in-Chief were not exactly what the underprivileged needed “to breathe now.”
It is regrettable that the nation is going through such difficult times, he said. So that we can come up with a solution, everyone needs to calm down. We currently face hardship as a result of the unforeseen removal of the fuel subsidy. We cannot escape this situation if we are unable to locally refine crude. I’m making an appeal to Nigerians, including NLC members, to give the government a chance to start, and the best way to do that is by localising the refining of crude oil.
“We won’t be able to overcome this challenge if we continue to rely on the importation of refined products. I feel sorry for Nigerians like myself. We cannot ignore the suffering of Nigerians. While we take the necessary steps to establish new refineries, let’s restart the ones we already have in the nation. When it comes to local transport, the government should devise strategies to mitigate the impact.
The proposed N8,000 per family for 12 million families is unimportant. Given that the public’s needs are expanding daily, the President’s entire palliative package needs to be reviewed. Actually, before the subsidy was eliminated, the government ought to have offered these services. There is a problem if a typical worker finds out all of a sudden that his monthly wages are insufficient to cover his expenses for food and transportation.
A member of the House of Representatives from Edo State’s Orhionmwon/Uhunmwonde Federal Constituency, Billy Osawaru, joins the discussion and claims that some influential but unnamed Nigerians are responsible for the widespread protests.
“Some Nigerians are behind the protests because they question why there are still demonstrations when it is clear that the President is willing to respond to the needs of the populace. The President has made an appearance to outline strategies for easing the situation. This is the best it’s ever been. Let’s be honest with ourselves. President Tinubu has met the needs of the populace in his brief time in office. He has created short-, mid-, and long-term plans to address these issues, but these individuals insisted on staging a protest. What outcome do they hope to get?
Are they saying right now that no one is paying attention to them? People who are fanning the flame of mistrust do not, in the end, have Nigeria’s best interests at heart. If so, they ought to pay attention to the President’s suggestions.
“These same labour people were taken to the National Industrial Court by the administration of Muhammadu Buhari and they were banned from protesting,” Osawaru recalled of the previous administration, which denied organised labour the opportunity to disagree with its position on some issues. What did they manage to accomplish? It is unfortunate that these protests are being organised by self-centered individuals. Nigerians should be well-educated enough to understand that those who act in ways that are harmful to the country’s well-being are those who profess to love it.
Senior Attorney of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, urged the Federal Government to address the hardships being felt by Nigerians and cautioned that things could quickly spiral out of control.
“Elite predators and buccaneers with an insatiable propensity for crude acquisition of illicit wealth have the country on pins and needles. The situation will worsen. If nothing drastic is done to reverse the terrible circumstances, Nigeria is on tenterhooks and on a precipice with a dangerous curve, according to him.
Anthony Sani, the recently-retired National Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum, also spoke and said that while it was legitimate for the protesters to take to the streets, tearing down the National Assembly’s gate was going too far.
He said: “While I share the NLC’s and Nigerians’ sorrow over the hardship brought on by the elimination of fuel subsidies, I do not think that tearing down the National Assembly’s gate is the answer. We all supported fuel subsidies in the past because the government could afford them, but now that the government cannot afford them due to low oil prices and production quotas, the only option left to them is to end them. That much was stated by the president in his broadcast.
Sani went on to say that the biggest political parties in the nation all pledged to abolish the subsidy system if they were to win the 2023 presidential election, and that was the only reason for this.
This explains why the removal of it was supported by all the major political parties, including the APC, PDP, and LP. The Federal Government has developed palliatives to lessen the hardship being felt by Nigerians now that it has been removed. The NLC, TUC, and other Nigerians are expected to make recommendations on how the government can lessen the hardship currently being felt while waiting for the Dangote Refinery to begin operations and drive down petrol prices.
“The NLC, TUC, opposition parties, and Nigerians are free to inform the government of ways to maximise the output of the scarce resources for the common good.” Anyone has the right to protest and use violence, but these actions should be avoided. Protests and the destruction of public property cannot, under any circumstances, be the answer, he insisted.
In most state capitals across the country, union leaders were reported to have met with the President a few hours after the protest came to an end, so it is unclear what actions the government would take next.
