BEVERLY HILLS, May 26, (THEWILL) – A group which identified itself as the Vanguard for Transparent Leadership and Democracy, VATLAD, on Thursday voiced its objection to the resumed negotiation between the Federal Government and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, with regard to the recent increase in the pump price of petrol from N86.50 to N145 per litre.
In a statement signed by its National President, Comrade Igbini Odafe Emmanuel, the group lamented that the meeting has created the impression that Federal Government is inconsistent with its policies, plans and actions with no clear and firm agenda of positive Change for the country.
The statement reads, “That the appointment of new Board of PPPRA is totally unjustified and amounts to making mockery of the planned deregulation of the downstream sector of petroleum industry and scrapping of fraudulent subsidy from petroleum products.
“We insist that the right and lawfully justified demand by organized Labour Unions in response to these hikes in price of petrol and electricity tariff should be only to engage the Federal Government, States and Local Governments and employers of all organized employers of Labour in review of salaries of workers. It is totally unlawful for leaders of organized Labour Unions to continue to arrogate to themselves the duty of “opposition” to governments on matters of policies like this.
“That we restate our earlier position that Federal Government should not hold any meeting with these Labour Leaders who embarked on this nationwide strike as doing so will continue to encourage lawlessness and disregard for Laws of our nation. They must first apologise for embarking on this nationwide strike action without respect for laws and due processes of law and acting outside their constitutional jurisdiction as first step.
“We demand that President Buhari replicates his patriotic stand on the pressures brought on him to devalue the naira. He must not allow and succumb to continued blackmails of governments by a few masquerading under Labour Movements, to discontinue or abandon any progressive policy and action for the interest of over 170 million Nigerian masses. The interest of a few cannot and must not be placed above the interest of the generality of Nigerians.
“We restate our demand that PPPRA, DPR (downstream), Petroleum Equalization Fund, IPMAN, Major Oil Marketers Associations and all other Unions or Associations that interferes directly or indirectly in determination of prices of petroleum products under a deregulated regime, should immediately be scrapped and cease to be lawful during this regime of deregulation.
“That the implementation of the planned N500bn Palliative in the 2016 Budget should be channeled to provision/improvement of cheaper alternative sources of electricity (solar and cheaper LPGs for domestic cooking), and construction and maintenance of inter and intra- communal rural roads to our farms, construction of silos and storage facilities for agricultural produce and subsidy on basic agricultural tools and machines.
“That we are strongly opposed to planned sharing of N5000 to each unemployed Nigerian as a palliative measure.”
