PLANNED NATIONWIDE PROTEST BY NLC: HOLD MARKETERS RESPONSIBLE, ALLOW THE NEW GOVERNMENT TO FOCUS.
By Sunday Adebayo.
My attention has been drawn to the notice of planned nationwide protest making rounds on social media purportedly attributed to the Nigerian Labour Congress over the removal of subsidy by the Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I must categorically state that it is too early to kick start nation wide protest against a government that was constituted less than a week. It is more worrisome that the NLC rather than patiently and diplomatically engage the new government on policies and plans it intends to implement to cushion the effects of hike in PMS price, has hurriedly called for nationwide action even when it’s crystal clear that the third arm of government who may as well play a vital role in the happenstance has not been inaugurated.
We may not need a soothsayer to tell us that the call for national protest is ill-motivated and perhaps, being bankrolled by some individuals who have been benefitting and enriching themselves from the unaccountable annual trillions being siphoned under the guise of subsidy.
Having Said that, I must emphatically say that some major stakeholders in the oil sector should be held responsible for the current hike in price of PMS. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu only made declaration that there is no provisions for subsidy in his plan. For the records, the country is still been run by the old budget and same will continue until the end of June. One would now wonder how marketers who purchased fuel at subsidized price are now selling same at an exorbitants rate all in a bid to raise the masses against the innocent government that has not even propose nor present her own budget.
I therefore call on stakeholders both in public and private sectors as well as the NLC to engage dialogue and diplomacy in addressing this peace-threatening situation. The demand should be for accountability on how the government intends to re-channel the supposed subsidy into a better direction that will reinvigorate the economic sector in the interest of all Nigerians.
