NLC FAULTS TINUBU, SAYS SPEECH ‘OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY’

NLC Faults Tinubu, says Speech ‘Out Of Touch With Reality’

The Nigerian Labour Congress NLC has described Tinubu’s ‘Special Speech’ on Monday night as completely ‘out of touch with reality’
The union said the President was expected to tell Nigerians his plans to resuscitate public refineries.

The union stated this on Monday night, where they faulted the palliative measures announced by President Bola Tinubu to cushion the biting effect of petrol subsidy removal on Nigerians, saying the programmes to be rolled out by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government are totally out of touch with economic realities and hardship currently being faced by poor citizens.

In a statement on Monday, hours after the President’s special broadcast to Nigerians on his plans to alleviate the suffering of the citizens, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said “the promises and assurances made by President Tinubu is not the silver bullet that Nigerians expected”.

“The speech indeed appears to be out of touch with reality and anomalous with the hardship and suffering that most Nigerians are going through now,” the NLC leader said.

Tinubu had removed subsidy on petrol during his epic inauguration speech on May 29, 2023, with a litre of the petrol jumping from N184 to over N620 and food prices and general inflation galloping at an unprecedented rate.

In his address on Monday, Tinubu promised to review workers’ salaries and minimum wage.

The Congress in the statement noted that it was “open knowledge” that the review of minimum wage would commence in 2024 as stipulated by law. The Congress also stated that the Tinubu administration had failed to show cooperation and dialogue with members of the organised labour.

NLC also said the President was expected to tell Nigerians his plans to resuscitate public refineries which have been lying comatose for so many years but he was completely silent on the issue.

The union had threatened a nationwide protest starting August 2, 2023 if the government failed to do the needful.