A procession tagged as “mother and father of all protest rallies” is due to hold tomorrow in Abuja to kick against the decision of the Federal Government to remove fuel subsidies through the deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector.
The rally is being organised by a coalition of labour unions and civil society groups, led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), who insisted that the government has no reason to deregulate the oil sector because this would send prices of fuel products spiraling.
The protesters would begin the procession at Berger Junction and end at the premises of the National Assembly, where they are to deliver a letter stating the position of workers and other Nigerians on the deregulation policy and other national issues.
The Federal Government, through Minister of Petroleum Resources Rilwanu Lukman and his Labour and Productivity counterpart Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, has insisted on going ahead with the deregulation policy in spite of the protests. The government said the policy would take off before the end of the year.
Speaking at an emergency meeting of the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the NLC at the Labour House in Abuja, NLC President Abdulwaheed Omar said the rally had to take place because of the union’s “strong belief that it is important to send a very strong message to the Federal Government about our grave concerns over the state of affairs in the country.”
He said the protest rally was “fundamental when one puts into context the resurgent vigour in which the government has over the past few weeks heightened the campaign on deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.”
According to Omar, their opposition to the policy was because government has not fulfilled all the preconditions that will make deregulation work as enunciated in the agreement reached with workers in 2007.
“Has government, for instance, carried out a holistic rehabilitation of our refineries or established new ones such that not a barrel of our oil will be exported in crude form as obtains in other OPEC countries?
“Are we in a position to talk about deregulation when our domestic consumption is overwhelmingly dependent on import? Nigeria Labour Congress, as a critical stakeholder in our country, must continue to enlighten workers and Nigerians just as it has done in the struggle for independence,” he said.
Omar also accused President Umaru Yar’adua of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians. “That the leadership of President Yar’adua has refused to deviate from the insensitivity of past leaders is indicative of the retrogressive character of our ruling elite. It is an elite that progressively continues to manifest that we are under a determined internal colonialism whose main desire is profit maximization at the expense of the vast majority of Nigerians,” he said.
He said even the West which is the architect of capitalism has embarked upon a wide range of deliberate regulatory interventions to de-escalate the effects of global economic recession, but wondered why Nigeria’s government is instead bent on “inflicting pain” on Nigerians.
“Our situation is vexing and full of frustrations but our duty is clear; we have the historical responsibility to defend the interest of the working people; protect the masses and secure our posterity.
“This way, we are assured that our dream and hope for prosperity and development that has so far eluded us will come to fruition. These expectations all combined to continue to drive and propel us even in our existing depressing and despondent situation,” Omar said.
He said also it is “an affront on congress and Nigerian people that in spite of clear and present economic, social and political dangers, the Federal Government went ahead to state that there is no going back deregulation and it is still very unwilling to implement the Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Report Panel report which potentially guarantees the right of Nigerians to credible elections and the implementation of a national minimum wage that will ensure decent implementation of a national minimum wage that will ensure decent living for workers.”