By Kamil Opeyemi
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Tuesday accused the Federal Government of robbing masses to feed satisfy the greed of the rich people.
The Congress said government’s plan amounts to scam.
The government had earlier announced plan to distribute N500bn as palliatives to Nigerians and government officials to cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy.
NLC also asked the federal government to review the proposed N8,000 to 12 million household palliative.
Last week, President Bola Tinubu asked the senate to approve a borrowing request of $800 million.
The federal government plans to transfer N8,000 per month to 12 million poor and low-income households for a period of six months, with a multiplier effect on about 60 million individuals.
The President said the palliative would help to cushion the effect of the petrol subsidy removal on the poor masses.
Reacting, the NLC, in a statement by its President, Joe Ajaero, on Tuesday, argued that the Federal Government was “seeking to impoverish the people further by taking steps that can only be described as robbing the people of Nigeria to pay and feed the Rich”.
The apex labour organisation said rather than reciprocate the goodwill of Nigerian workers, the Federal Government led by President Bola Tinubu had “insisted on threading the path of dictatorship
“It is on this basis that the NLC strongly condemns the decision of the Tinubu-led administration to seek the approval of the national assembly to obtain another tranche of external loans worth N500 billion from the World Bank for the purposes of carrying out a phantom palliative measure to carry out a phantom palliative measure to cushion the effect of its poorly thought-out hike in the prices of Premium Motor Spirit, Ajaero said.
NLC recalled that the $800m already proposed before the government’s devaluation of the naira was worth about N400bn, but had risen to about N650bn post-devaluation.
“It is from this, it proposes to bring out N500b for distribution.
“The proposal to pay N8,000 to each of the so-called 12 million poorest Nigerian households for a period of six months insults our collective intelligence and makes a mockery of our patience and abiding faith in social dialogue which the government may have alluded to albeit pretentiously.
“The further proposal to pay national assembly members the sum of N70 billion and the judiciary N36 billion is the most insensitive, reckless and brazen diversion of our collective patrimony into the pockets of public officers whose sworn responsibility it is to protect our nation’s treasury.
“We believe that this may amount to hush money and outright bribery of the other arms of government to acquiesce to the aberration.
“It is unconscionable that a government that has foisted so much hardship on the people within nearly two months of coming into office will make a proposal that clearly rewards the rich in public office to the detriment of the poor.
“What this means all this while is that the government is seeking ways of robbing the very poor Nigerians so that the rich can become richer.
“There is no other way to explain the proposal to pay a misery sum of N8,000 Naira to each of the mysterious poorest 12 million Households for six months which amounts to N48,000 and pays just 469 National Legislators N70b or about N149m each while the Judiciary that has about 72 Appeal Court Judges, 33 National Industrial Court Judges, 75 Federal High Court Judges and 21 Supreme Court Judges and a total of about 201 Judges receive a total of N35b or N174m each.
“If these other two arms are projected to receive this, what members of the Executive Council will receive is better left to the imagination of Nigerians perhaps, the balance of N150b will go to them.
“These proposals are not just unacceptable to Nigerian workers but are also dictatorial and thus undemocratic. It is not a product of social dialogue which would have produced collectively negotiated outcomes by critical national stakeholders.
“We do not want to provide a cover for the government to get away with the hardship it has imposed on the people. We do not want to legitimize impunity.”
It added that “if the government does not want to stop these fortuitous actions that it is pursuing in the name of palliatives, we will be forced to constructively review our engagement with the government on this vexatious issue and take matters into our own hands”.
NPO Reports however that the presidency Tuesday night said the president had ordered a review of the decision.
A statement by Dele Alake, Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, said the review order was significantly to show the President listens to the masses.