The Nigerian government on Saturday pleaded with the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC to suspend it’s Monday planned protest over the increase of fuel and electricity tariff.
After failing to reach an agreement with the government in a meeting held on Thursday, the leadership of the Union disclosed that they were going to go-ahead with the strike action slated for Monday Sept. 28.
But the Minister of Information and culture, Lai Mohammed, on Saturday came out in defense of the increase saying, it was a necessary coincidence and not a deliberate ploy by government to increase the current hardship on Nigerians.
He noted that the deregulation of the petroleum sector will in the long run save the country trillions of naira, which will then be used to provide infastructures for the benefit of Nigerians.
“We wish to appeal to organize labour to shelve it’s planned strike action which can only bring more hardship to ordinary Nigerians.
“The timing of these two necessary adjustments has raised some concerns among Nigerians and reinforced the false narrative that the government is insensitive to the plight of the citizens. This is a mere coincidence.
“First, the deregulation of PMS prizes was announced on March 18, 2020 and the price modulation that took place at the beginning of this month was just part of the ongoing monthly adjustments to global crude oil prizes.
“Also the review of service based electricity tariffs was scheduled to start at the beginning of July, 2020 but was put on hold so that further studies and proper arrangements can be made.
“We thank Nigerians for their understanding and wish to appeal to them to please bear with the government.”
