President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Joe Ajaero, has
urged workers and Nigerians to discountenance some online reports that
tomorrow’s mass protest has been called off.
Ajaero told Vanguard that, “We have no reasons to call off
the planned protest. If we suspend or call it off, you will know. I can tell
you that the mobilization is very high.”
His comment is coming after NLC held its rescheduled meeting
with Steering Committee on palliatives at the presidential villa in Abuja on
Tuesday (today)
Recall that the organized labour on Monday insisted on going
ahead with its planned protest over the removal of petroleum subsidy.
NLC had openly expressed doubts about President Bola
Tinubu’s ability to control inflation and gasoline prices due to the
unification of the exchange rate.
Speaking to correspondents, Ajaero said the plan for workers
to proceed on a peaceful protest from Wednesday has not changed.
He dismissed fears that the peaceful protest could be
hijacked by hoodlums, saying that such had never happened in the history of
workers protest.
However, he said it is the responsibility of security
agencies to provide security for the protest to protect the workers.
He said the meeting of the Steering Committee adjourned till
12noon on Tuesday to enable the labour leaders to listen to the president’s
national broadcast on Monday.
However, reacting to Tinubu’s plan to intervene on exhange
rate over inflation and high cost of gasoline prices, Ajaero said, “By the time
you have a single market and you are not having anything that has a comparative
advantage, your energy is import driven, then how are you going to control it?
“How are you going to
control somebody that exchanged dollar at about 900 (naira)? Are you going to
tell him to sell below the price?
“How are you going to tell even NEPA today, with the cost of
production not to increase tariff? Even corn in the villages that was sold at
N18,000 by February, now it’s about 56,000. How are you going to control it?”
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