The Nigeria Labour Congress has commenced mass mobilization ahead of its planned nationwide strike scheduled to begin Wednesday to protest the hardship occasioned by the fuel subsidy removal.
The congress is scheduled to meet with the federal government on Monday but has already asked Nigerians to join its members for the protest “at the Unity Fountain, Abuja on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, at 7 am.”
“There is nowhere in the world where government leaves its citizens totally to the vagaries of the market without some measure of control and protection,” The NLC wrote in a schedule seen by some journalists.
“The federal government should immediately deal decisively with the criminal content of subsidy instead of exposing ordinary citizens to avoidable pain and hardship,” it added.
The NLC said the Tinubu administration was playing games with the lives of Nigerians while urging the government to fix Nigeria’s public refineries.
The Congress also pointed to the unpaid salaries of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as a reason for protesting.
Academic unions like the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) will be joining the strike on Wednesday.
On July 26, the NLC gave the federal government a seven-day ultimatum to reverse policies that have led to the hike in petrol prices.
