Labour leaders on Wednesday protested in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, over the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu.
The organised labour unions were joined by civil society organisations to kick against the hardship imposed on Nigerians as a result of the fuel subsidy removal.
They shut down major roads in Abeokuta, demanding the immediate reversal of all anti-poor policies of President Tinubu’s administration.
The workers described the removal of fuel subsidy, hike in school fees and Value Added Tax as anti-people policies.
They also asked for the release of eight months of withheld salaries of university lecturers and an end to “inhuman actions” and policies of the government.
According to them, the policies had brought untold hardships to Nigerian workers and worsened the living condition of the people.
Armed with various placards, the workers marched from the NLC secretariat in the Leme area of the Abeokuta metropolis to the governor’s office in Oke-Mosan, preventing free vehicular movement.
Some of the inscriptions on their placards read: “Let the poor breathe, don’t suffocate them”, “Stop importation of petrol, revive the refineries now!”, “Stop the looting, tax the rich and subsidise the poor”, “Give workers what is due”.
Addressing the workers, the NLC Chairman in Ogun, Hammed Ademola, said the protest was in compliance with the directive of the national body of the union.
“We have to be on the street, we must not wait until we die, our destiny is always in our hands, and now is the right time for us to tell the government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu that we Nigerians are suffering.
“The fuel subsidy removal has caused a lot of hardship, untold hardship onto the masses of this nation. We are suffering, we have crude oil yet we are still buying abroad, enough is enough”, Ademola said.
His TUC counterpart, Akeem Lasisi, demanded the reversal of fuel subsidy, saying it is the “constitutional responsibility of any government”.
Lasisi said, “subsidy is a global practice, so it is unfortunate in this country that our own subsidy is marred with corruption.”
Instead of the government removing subsidy, he charged it to remove the corruption in subsidy.
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