The NLC President Joe Ajaero who declared the warning strike action, regretted that the distribution of food palliatives is inadequate to combat the effects of the fuel subsidy removal.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has picked holes in the President Bola Tinubu's fuel subsidy removal palliatives, noting that many Nigerians will not get even one cup of rice.
SaharaReporters reported that the Tinubu-led Nigerian government in August approved N185 billion to states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as palliatives to cushion the effects of biting economic hardship facing Nigerians as a result of fuel subsidy removal.
Each state was given N5 billion to purchase food items especially rice and foodstuffs to distribute to most vulnerable residents.
Dissatisfied on the method of sharing of the palliatives which many Nigerians have accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), of only sharing the food palliatives to members, the Labour Union declared a two-day nationwide strike.
The NLC President Joe Ajaero who declared the warning strike action, regretted that the distribution of food palliatives is inadequate to combat the effects of the fuel subsidy removal.
Ajaero who spoke while featuring on Channels TV programme, on Friday night, said: “If you share that N5bn or even the five trucks of rice or grain, many people may not get one or half cup of rice.
“If you share the N5bn, many people, probably within the working class or the poor of the poor, may not get N1,500. Now, is that the palliative?”
Describing the palliatives as “mere tokenism," the NLC President stated that the palliatives being shared to some Nigerians cannot cushion the impacts of the subsidy removal policy.
He stated, “When you do it, you reduce us to mere tokenism – maybe give us N10,000 for three months and leave people to die. That is not the issue.
“We have to sit down and look at some measures that would cushion the effects or that would substitute the suffering of Nigerians. So, by the time you say you are giving state governors N5bn each, what does that translate to if they share it?”
He, however, said, that if the money budgeted for the palliatives was put into the public transport system, the people would be better for it.
“For every day a worker moves from his house to the office and comes back with a reduced transportation rate, he may save N1,000 daily.
“If he tries that for 28 days or even 20 days, he may be saving about N20,000 on transportation alone. That’s a policy. That would help even the farmer who moves his goods and services from one point to the other.”