The Campaign for Democracy (CD), a pro-democracy, Civil Society and Human Rights Organisation, has backed President Bola Tinubu on the removal of fuel subsidy.

The group made this known in a communique issued by its North Central Executive Committee at the end of its meeting on Friday in Minna, a copy of which was made available to newsmen in Abuja on Saturday.

The communique was jointly signed by the Chairman, of North Central Zone, Dr Abdullahi Mohammed, and Secretary General, Mr Abdulwahid Adeniran.

They urged the president to restructure the nation’s security architecture to effectively tackle the challenge of insecurity as well as Nigeria as a country.

They said the expectation of Nigerians were high in tandem with the renewed hope principle and focused policy of the administration.

According to the communique, the removal of the fuel subsidy was long overdue and welcome the development for the good of Nigerians.

The group also urged the government to do the needful by putting necessary palliative policy measures and logistics to soften the hardship that might accompany the new paradigm shift among the citizens.

“That there is a need for a national task force comprising of the Army, Police, Customs, Navy, Air Force, Civil Defence and non-state actors, civil society,  among other stakeholders, to check the arbitrary price increase of the product, stop the exploitation of the people by fuel marketers and their collaborators/dealers to tarnish the image of the new administration in the eyes of the public,” they said.

The group also called on stakeholders in the educational sector to come up with solutions to the challenges of 12.3 million out-of-school in Nigeria as a result of insecurity.

They also advocated that the president should give directions to child education through the resettlement of IDPs, and tackle banditry, poverty, food insecurity and socio-economic challenges confronting the nation.

The group recommended that federal government policy programme implementation be adopted at the sub-national state and local governments for the benefit of Nigerians.

According to them, this synergy is key to the collaborative building of the country.

Besides, CD called on Tinubu to restructure the nation’s security architecture for better performance to further curb crimes and criminalities.

They however commended the Armed Forces of Nigeria for taking the battle against insurgency, kidnapping, and banditry to the doorsteps of the criminals.

According to the group, the battle against insecurity is winnable by our gallant military men and officers in the theatre of the war.

They therefore called on all stakeholders to support Tinubu toward physical and economically restructuring of Nigeria for the common interest of all.

The group congratulated the new governor and deputy governor of Niger, advising them to partner with all relevant stakeholders for the peace and development of the state.

“We appeal to the incoming government to take the welfare of civil servants seriously by providing motivational incentives to improve the working conditions of workers and ensure commensurate take-home wages and salaries are paid as of when due,” the group urged.

… As NLC Orders Nationwide Strike On Wednesday

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has urged the Federal Government to revert to the status quo ante its decision to remove fuel subsidy.

Mr. Festus Osifo, TUC President, spoke while addressing newsmen at the end of an emergency meeting of the congress’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Friday in Abuja.

According to Osifo, the TUC is unhappy with the unilateral decision of the Federal Government to remove the subsidy.

He said the TUC’s expectation was that the government should have engaged organised labour.

“Having noted this, we wish to state that the NEC-in- session resolved that discussions with Federal Government should continue while demanding that the government should revert to the status quo ante.

“The status quo ante should be maintained while the discussion continues as we had a meeting with the government on Wednesday.

“During that discussion, they gave us a list of all the things they would do and they also demanded to know our thinking and what we are putting up.

“We told them the lists of the things we want to put forward, we will not submit them now but put them forward to our organs, to discuss and seek mandate from them of the things we can put forward,’ ‘he said.

According to Osifo, it is how the government reacts to TUC’s demands that will determine the union’s next line of action.

“We will wait till Sunday when we will meet with the representatives of the government.

“Once we are done with that meeting then the TUC is going to put its demands forward, it is how they react to those demands will determine our next line of action, ”he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Nigeria Labour Congress also had its NEC meeting and has said it will embark on a nationwide strike as from June 7 if the issue of fuel subsidy removal and increase in the price of fuel is not reverted.

In the meantime, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said it would begin a nationwide strike on Wednesday over the current increase in the pump price.

Mr Joe Ajaero, NLC President, said this while addressing newsmen at the end of its emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja on Friday.

Ajaero said that Labour would embark on strike if the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) fails to revert the current template on the increase in the price of fuel occasioned by the withdrawal of fuel subsidy.

“Consequently, NLC has decided that If by Wednesday, the NNPCL, a private Limited Liability Company, that illegally announced the price regime in the oil sector, refuses to revert itself for negotiation to continue, the Nigeria Labour Congress and all its affiliates will withdraw their services and commence protest nationwide until this is complied with.

“The NNPCL does not have the monopoly to fix prices even as a private company.

“The NLC, therefore, directs all its state councils and industrial unions to commence mobilisation from this moment to make sure that the action is carried out,’’ he said.

Ajaero also said that the ongoing negotiation between the NLC and Federal Government might not produce any meaningful result until President Bola Tinubu constitutes his cabinet.

He said that it was important that the NLC entered into negotiation with a properly constituted government that would see that any decision taken would be binding on it.

According to him, it is instructive that until a government is properly constituted and the people who will negotiate with labour are such people with the mandate and capacity to commit the government of the day, such negotiations may not be valid.

The NLC president, however, said that hence, there was a need to revert to the old pump price of petrol as a necessity for labour to continue its engagement with the government.

He also called for a holistic investigation into the fuel subsidy regime to determine the beneficiaries of what he described as the fraud in the system.

Ajaero added that this should have been tackled by the current government, rather than going ahead to withdraw the subsidy entirely.

NNPCL had recently announced a new pump price for petrol ranging from N488 to N570 per litre depending on the region of the country.

…Nigerians Express Concerns Over Immediate Implementation***

The fuel queue which had created motley crowds of rowdy buyers on Tuesday and the early part of Wednesday in the few dispensing petrol stations, suddenly disappeared in Ibadan, as filling stations changed prices and hiked it to N500 per litre.

A petrol station on the old Ife Road, near the Loyola College, had dispensed fuel earlier at slightly above N200 per litre to grudging customers, until the Station managers received new directives, mandating them to hike their price.

They complied, and momentarily, the queue disappeared, as buyers fled the petrol station. Even those who had claimed that they came into the station with their vehicles on red light, suddenly had enough to drive home.

A correspondent who drove through the city, from Alakia, through Total Garden to the University of Ibadan, observed that more stations hitherto closed for business opened stations, immediately. Only the Bovas had little patronage because buyers could vouchsafe their integrity.

In the meantime, Nigerians have expressed concern over the sudden implementation of subsidy removal in spite of President Bola Tinubu’s assurance that it would not take effect immediately.

In Lagos, it was a matter of shock for buyers as the new price came up. 

On the Ogudu – Toll Gate- Berger axis, Commuters, particularly those on the Inter-State trips, expressed bewilderment, and started slashing whatever litres they had planned to buy.

Some drivers threatened to go back to their Parks, even as several passengers cough out additional fares.

The story from Port Harcourt, was however that shocked buyers simply watched, helplessly. (See video).

A cross section of residents of Ibadan, Oyo State, however expressed their feelings on Wednesday in separate interviews in Ibadan. 

An Entredepreneur, Mr Tobi Adeyemi, said the development was not a good one.

According to Adeyemi, the new administration should have provided some sort of respite for Nigerians considering the enormous hardship being faced by Nigerians.

“This will definitely affect prices of goods and services; from tomatoes sellers to foodstuffs; transportation, increase in fuel price and so on.

“We will all bear the brunt of it together. I only pity salary earners who are on a fixed income. Besides, I don’t believe this is the right timing,” Adeyemi said.

Also, a sales representative, Dr Adeyinka Adekunle, said the previous administration had budgeted for subsidy till the end of June.

“So, to me it was shocking to learn that the removal had taken effect from May 31 based on what the previous administration had done.

“Everything is sort of confusing now because of the budgetary provision for subsidy till June end,” Adekunle said.

He however, said a nation that was going to be great has to go through some teething periods.

In his remarks, an artisan, Mr Akinola Akinkunmi, said he has yet to comprehend the situation, because things were hard already and buying fuel at N500 per litre now would worsen the situation.

Akinkunmi said: “I cannot yet wrap my mind around how my business will survive; we are already struggling to make ends meet.

“With this development and absence of power supply from the distributing company, we are definitely going further down the poverty line.

“We need support from the government; we need help to survive this time,” Akinkunmi said.

Another entrepreneur, Mr Demola Adedeji, said the timing was not right as the economy had been in bad shape for some time now.

“At least, some things should have been put in place before the total removal of subsidy,” Adedeji said.

In his contributions, Mr Yinka Ajadi, a businessman, said that many people would go into depression as blood pressure of many Nigerians struggling to survive the situation would rise.

Ajadi said, “We can only hope for critical intervention at this time such as solving the problem of power and production inputs.”

Meanwhile, the orchestrated meeting between the Federal Government and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) over subsidy removal has reportedly ended in a stalemate.

The Maritime First learnt that the meeting which was held at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday failed to attract any reasonable conclusion, as parties across the divide stuck to their guns.

It was further gathered that while the Organised Labour was represented by NLC National President, Joe Ajaero, and the President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Festus Osifo, and other top labour party notchers.

The Federal Government was however represented by people who included the former labour leader and former Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, President Bola Tinubu’s spokesman, Dele Alake, the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited Mele Kyari, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.

Specifically, the National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero reportedly criticised the Federal Government, stressing the need to revert to the status quo ante,  because the government failed to either negotiate or protect the Nigerian workers’ interest, before yanking off the subsidy.

The Federal Government on the other hand had argued that the labour had all the time in the world to negotiate with the Buhari government and therefore lacked the moral rights to talk of negotiations now.

The Organised labour therefore said it was going to throw the inconclusive results of their meeting to the Congress whose decision would be final, a euphemism for a nationwide strike.

Consequently, Government representatives called for a rescheduled meeting in a bid to enable further discussions or negotiations.