August 02, (THEWILL) – The Cross River State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has told President Bola Tinubu that he was not elected to kill Nigerians.
Olayi Gregory, the Chairman of the State chapter of the Council, made this known during a rally against the effect of the subsidy removal on workers.
The rally was organised by the NLC alongside the Trade Union Congress as well as the Joint Negotiation Council.
“If you are elected, even at the state level, your policies should be friendly, we do not want policies that will kill the people that elected you.
“We did not elect you (President Tinubu) to treat us this way, we did not elect you to kill us.
“We cannot pay for our transport from one place to the other within our urban centre.
“We want them to repair our refineries and stop the importation of fuel. Please repair our refineries because that is what labour is looking for.
“Let us have a country where every citizen will benefit. The main point of our going out is that the Government should repair all the refineries we have in this country,” the NLC state chairman said.
Also speaking, Comrade Monday Ogbodum, Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, Cross River State chapter, said they are protesting to condemn the policies of the President.
According to him, “We are here as organised labour in the state namely the NLC, TUC and the Joint Council to condemn what the Government of President Bola Tinubu is doing to Nigerians.
“The worsening economic situation in the country is what we are saying no to; increase in the tuition of schools is what we are saying no to; implementation of the increase in VAT is what we are saying no to; privatization of hospitals and federal medical centres is what we are saying no to. We also say no to any plan to increase the electricity tariff in the country; we say no,” he said.
He added that there is a need to reduce the cost of governance in the country because it is taking a toll on the resources of the country.
On his part, Comrade Raymond Akan, Chairman of the Joint Negotiation Council, said the President is somersaulting with the subsidy as he had earlier protested against it.
“This anti-people policy, anti-workers policy, anti-Nigerian policy, we say no to all these things.
“We are here to tell the Government of President Tinubu that he was against this policy in January 2012 and today he is somersaulting.
“We want him to go back and remember that removing subsidy in Nigeria is not the end of it and other measures should be put in place to cushion the effects,” he said.
The protest took the workers to the State House of Assembly where their letter was presented to the Speaker, Elbert Ayambem, and also to the office of the Governor, where they were received by the Deputy Governor, Peter Odey.
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
