A coalition of civil society organisations has called on the Nigerian
Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to shelve
their proposed nationwide strike over the increase in the price of
petrol.
This was contained in a statement issued on Sunday, in
Abuja, signed by Tosin Adeyanju, Executive Director, Conscience Nigeria,
for the group which declared that embarking on strike would do more
harm than good to the country’s economy.
He listed some members of
the collation supporting deregulation of the oil sector as Stand up
Nigeria, Centre for Leadership Development (CPALD), National Youth
Council of Nigeria and Arise Nigeria.
“We all know the implication that will arise as a result of this sudden change,” the statement read.
“We must endure this phase in other for our country to survive these present economic realities that are very obvious.
“We
equally appeal on the NLC and other civil society colleagues to shelve
the proposed nationwide strike and engage the government.
“We want NLC to engage government on the need to create immediate
palliatives to cushion the effect of this policy instead of worsening
the already bad economy of the country.
“If our country is shut down as proposed, billions of naira will be lost and the country will suffer for it in the long run
“The
new phase of deregulation championed by the Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources is worthy of commendation after many years of
monumental corruption in subsidy regime.
“No nation can move
forward without liberalization or deregulation of its critical economic
sector like ours as it was done in the telecommunication sector.
“About
80 percent of our country’s revenue comes from oil proceeds and as the
global economic meltdown continues, there is need for this to take place
if we must be taken seriously in the comity of nations.
“Therefore, the step taken by the minister to deregulate this critical sector is the best at this material time.
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