Fuel Price Hike Has Further Deepened Poverty In Nigeria – NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress has called for the immediate reversal of the hike in the pump prices of petrol by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

NLC recently had its say via a press statement signed by its president, Joe Ajaero, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, it is unheard of that a private company (NNPCL) is the one fixing prices and projecting itself as a hegemonic monopoly, so the government must go back to the drawing board and present us with a blueprint for inclusive economic growth and national development.

He added that the recent petrol price hike has further deepened poverty across Nigeria, and more jobs have been lost.

His words, “Even following the logic of market forces, we find it an aberration that a private company (NNPCL) is the one fixing prices and projecting itself as a hegemonic monopoly.

We challenge the government to go to the drawing board and present us with a blueprint for inclusive economic growth and national development instead of this spasmodic ad holism and palliative policy.

It needs no stating the fact that the latest wave of increase has grossly altered the calculations of Nigerians once again at a time they were reluctantly coming to terms with their new realities.

It will further deepen poverty as production capacities dip, more jobs lost with multidimensional negative effects. In light of this, we urge the government to immediately reverse this rate hike as previous increases did not produce any good results. People only got poorer.

But more fundamentally, the government should be bold enough to tell Nigerians in advance the destination it wants to take the country.”

WOW.