Fuel price hike: Get ready for battle -NLC tells Jonathan

THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to stop the moves by his agents to increase fuel price and break up the NLC, warning that the government should be ready for another battle if it goes ahead with the issue of fuel price hike and polarisation of the congress.

A statement issued by the congress on Sunday and signed by its Acting General Secretary, Comrade Owei Lakemfa, warned that the government cannot win the battle that will follow if President Jonathan fails to call to order his agents.

“With the serious security challenges in the country, the heating up of the polity by politicians and rising poverty in the land, the NLC calls on President Jonathan to call the agents of his government to order on the twin issues of trying to break up the NLC by fiat and increasing fuel price. These are unnecessary battles which the government cannot win,” the NLC said.

The NLC scribe stated that it appeared that the Federal Government had concluded that the best way to deal with labour was to engineer internal 'disagreements, alleging that the government was hiding under this guise, to register a new labour centre which it hoped would support anti-people policies and cause distractions in the labour movement.

He said government had fixed July 2012 as the registration date of the proposed new labour centre.

Comrade Lakemfa reminded the presidency of the January strike, saying that the January 9 to 16, 2012 strikes, mass rallies and street protests were a referendum by the people against a ruinous policy, and not a defeat for which the administration sought revenge.

He said: “The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) finds it quite necessary to draw President Goodluck Jonathan's attention to moves by functionaries of his administration to create avoidable labour and political crises in the country by seeking to break up the Congress and impose a new regime of fuel price hikes on the country.

“These hawks in government who see the NLC as being too powerful and capable of checkmating undemocratic and unpatriotic moves by the political class, have come to the conclusion that the best way out is to engineer internal 'disagreements' in the NLC, and hide under this guise, to register a new labour centre which they hope will support anti-people policies and cause distractions in the Labour Movement.

“These government agents have even fixed July 2012 as the registration date of their proposed new labour centre.

“These agents who are also responsible for the anti-labour bill currently before the National Assembly are myopic as they do not realise that the NLC is a major buffer against any unconstitutional or anti-democratic bid for power in the country.

“They do not recognise the fact that when the chips are down, it is the NLC, and not the political parties that is capable of mobilising and getting tens of millions of Nigerians on the streets to defend our democratic project.

“The NLC advises the trade unionists who have enlisted for this anti-people project and those being enticed to join them, to retrace their steps as the Congress will not allow the ranks of the working people to be split. The NLC and its allies put the working people on the alert for a struggle to stop this move.

“The NLC also calls on President Jonathan to stop his officials who are engaged in renewed campaigns to further increase the price of fuel under the guise of a nebulous deregulation policy which the House of Representatives has exposed as being fraudulent.

“The continuous waste of public funds on media campaigns, the enticement of youths and so-called Town Hall meetings is a criminal enterprise, and such funds need to be put to better public use.

“The presidency needs to see the January 9 to 16, 2012 strikes, mass rallies and street protests as a referendum by the people against a ruinous policy, and not a defeat for which the administration seeks revenge.

“With the serious security challenges in the country, the heating up of the polity by politicians and rising poverty in the land, the NLC calls on President Jonathan to call the agents of his government to order on the twin issues of trying to break up the NLC by fiat and increasing fuel price. These are unnecessary battles which the government cannot win.”