NLC rejects petrol price hike

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday rejected the new fuel price hike, saying it will further deepen poverty in the country.

Joe Ajaero, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said this in a press statement after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) increased the petrol pump price in its retail outlets to N998 in Lagos and N1,030 in other locations.

“It looks like the only thing this government is known for is an increase in the pump price of petrol without commensurate capacity of Nigerians or mitigatory measures.” Ajaero said in the statement. “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,”

According to  Ajaero, the fuel price hike would only make people more uncomfortable as previous hikes did not yield any positive results.

He called on the government to reverse the decision, saying it tends to make more production capacities dip and lead to more job losses with multidimensional negative effects.

“It will further deepen poverty as production capacities dip, more jobs lost with multidimensional negative effects,” Ajaero said. “In light of this, we urge the government to immediately reverse this rate hike as previous increases did not produce any good result. 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.”