By Kolawole Kayode
Trade Union Congress (TUC) of Nigeria has issued a fresh two-week ultimatum, demanding that the federal government fast track planned palliatives measures to ease the burden on the citizens caused by the fuel subsidy removal.
The stipulated time frame came in the light of the federal government’s apparent delay, several weeks after it hosted organised labour in a meeting where both parties agreed on the palliatives.
TUC said it felt that the Presidential Steering Committee is not working at an anticipated speed while Nigerians are suffering.
The labour centre at a briefing with journalists in Abuja said that the congress would no longer continue to hear “big grammar” around the proposed palliatives while Nigerians trek long distances to their places of business.
TUC national president, Comrade Festus Osifo, asked the Presidential Steering Committee on the palliatives to conclude its work quickly to meet the yearnings of “battered” Nigerian masses.
Osifo also demanded that the federal government lead by example and reduce the cost of governance rather than pushing the burden of the subsidy removal and making an injury to the poor Nigerians.
The congress vowed to mobilise action against the National Assembly if the legislative arm failed to justify the planned purchase of exotic vehicles for its members.
“We all know the suffering that Nigerian workers are passing today and indeed the entire Nigerian masses.
We understand the difficulty that workers are passing through as it stands today,” he noted.
He said,” We want the government to fast track and ensure that between now and the next two weeks all the committees must have submitted their work.”
He added that this is one of those things they felt that as the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, they must bring to the limelight, saying that they would do everything possible to ensure that the government listens to them and the government fast track these processes.
“Government cannot continuously ask the workers and the Nigeria masses to continuously tie their belts. We have adjusted our belt while in government, they are continuously increasing the largesse.
“If they tell us that it is not a business as usual, it should not be to the detriment of the battered Nigeria masses or the downtrodden Nigerian workers. They should live by example… in a situation whereby they are pushing a log of poverty to the masses and they are living in affluence, we will not allow that to work”, he added.