How far can this cushion hardship, Organised Labour slams Tinubu’s N500bn palliative plan

The N500 billion palliative offered by President Bola Tinubu has been rejected by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) who claim that it is woefully insufficient to ease the hardships faced by workers as a result of the elimination of fuel subsidies.

In an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, the National Treasurer of the NLC, Hakeem Ambali, questioned the scope of the palliative’s coverage.

When asked if the amount would be sufficient, he said, “Definitely not. We have over 125 million Nigerians that are technically poor. To what extent can this cushion the effects of this economic hardship?”

Speaking on ways by which the President can mitigate the effect of subsidy removal, the NLC official asked for “Minimum wage review of 300 per cent to all workers; granting licences to individuals for modular refineries to refine petrol locally; granting economic stimulus loan to SMEs at 15 per cent rate.’’

He added, ‘’The government should provide social benefits for aged and unemployed youths; agric loans to farmers and youths through the Agric Bank and community banks at single digit rate; provide alternative energy supply such as massive investment in solar power and Compressed Natural Gas to motorists.

“Fix the refineries; reverse the privatization of electricity back to the state due to poor performance; Execute metro rail line projects in all state capitals and reduction of school fees for students of tertiary institutions.”

READ ALSO:Tinubu promises to roll out palliatives, stable power at meeting with Class of 1999 governors

The President had requested approval from the House of Representatives on Wednesday for N500 billion to mitigate the effects of the elimination of the petrol subsidy.

The National Assembly received a letter from Tinubu requesting action, which was read aloud in plenary by Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

In response to allegations that the subsidy system favoured the wealthy over the average Nigerian, among other things, the President had declared the abolition of the petrol subsidy during his inauguration address on May 29, 2023.

In his letter, the President proposed an amendment to the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act.

It read, “I write to the House of Reps to approve the amendment of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act in accordance with the attached.

“The request has become necessarily important to, among other things, the source for funds necessary to provide palliatives to mitigate the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy on Nigerians.

“Thus, the sum of N500bn only has been extracted from the 2022 Supplementary Act of N819,536,937,815 for the provision of palliative to cushion the effect of petrol subsidy removal.”

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