Latest hike in pump price of fuel will deepen poverty — Labour

The president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Joe Ajaero, has criticised the Federal Government over the latest increment in the pump price of fuel.

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

“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,” Ajaero stated in his reaction on Wednesday.

He challenged 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 hocism and palliative policy.”

He also lamented that the latest wave of increase has grossly altered the calculations of Nigerians once again at a time when they were reluctantly coming to terms with their new realities.

His words: “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.”

Latest hike in pump price of fuel will deepen poverty — Labour