Subsidy removal: NLC to begin nationwide strike Wednesday

The Nigeria Labour Congress will embark on a nationwide strike on Wednesday next week.

The congress said the strike action would be implemented if the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited fails to reverse the new pump price for the Premium Motor Spirit.

The NLC took the decision at the end of the emergency National Executive Council meeting held in Abuja on Friday.

The President, Bola Tinubu, during his inaugural speech on Monday, May 29, 2023, announced the removal of fuel subsidy. “Subsidy is gone,” Tinubu had said.

Though the President’s image makers in statements issued by the state house insisted that the new president was misquoted by some sections of the media.

Tinubu’s declaration led to an increase in panic buying with some filling stations across the country pegging the pump price of petrol to as high as N600 per litre.

On Wednesday, May 31, 2023, the NNPCL announced new pump prices according to states.

Some representatives of the government also met with the officials of the NLC, a meeting which ended in a deadlock.

However at the end of its NEC meeting on Friday, the national president of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, while briefing journalists said, “The NLC NEC directs all state councils and industrial unions to commence mobilisation from this moment.”