The Nigeria Labour Congress has announced plans to carry out protests across the country early in the new year, should the government go ahead with its plans to remove subsidies on petroleum products.
The protests will commence on January 27, in all the states of the federation, at the end of which letters of protest would be submitted to each state governor.
Another round of protests will be held on February 1, this time in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
These plans were unfolded by the NLC’s National Executive Council meeting, which was held at the Labour House, Abuja, on Friday.
NLC ‘s leaders said the subsidy removal would lead to hardship to Nigerian workers, noting that it would add to an already inflation rate in the country. According to them, removing the subsidy would take the prices of petroleum products out of the reach of ordinary Nigerians.
NLC has consistently rejected the government’s plans to remove the subsidy on petroleum products early in 2022, a demand that the IMF and World Bank have made on the Nigerian authorities as a means of stabilizing the macroeconomic system.
Announcing the planned subsidy removal, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed that the government would give a monthly transport allowance of N5,000 to about 40 million poor Nigerians.
