The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has strongly condemned the recent fuel pump price increase by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), describing it as a betrayal of the Nigerian people.

Recall that NNPC raised the retail price of petrol to N1,030 from N897 per litre.

Reacting in a statement, NLC President Joe Ajaero criticized the government for its handling of the fuel price increase, noting that a private company like NNPC should not dictate prices for Nigerians.

“It looks like the only thing this government is known for is increasing the pump price of petrol without commensurate capacity of Nigerians or mitigatory measures,” Ajaero said.

The NLC has challenged the government to present a blueprint for inclusive economic growth and national development, rather than relying on ad hoc policies. Ajaero emphasized that the latest price hike will further deepen poverty, lead to job losses, and have multidimensional negative effects on Nigerians.

The full statement reads:

We are dismayed by the latest increase in the pump price of petrol. It looks like the only thing this government is known for is 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.

We challenge the government to go to the drawing board and present us with a blueprint for an inclusive economic growth and national development instead of this spasmodic ad hocism and palliative policy.

It needs no stating the fact that the latest wave of increase has grossly altered the calculations of Nigerians once again at a time they were reluctantly coming to terms with their new realities.

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 result. 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.