Labour on Thursday night opposed the government’s plan to fully deregulate petrol pricing because it is no longer able to sustain the subsidy regime.
This stance was in opposition to the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari who insisted that the subsidy era must end because it stopped bearing the N120 billion monthly subsidy on the cost of petrol consumption by Nigerians.
Kyari said the burden had become too heavy for the NNPC to bear.
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba said the Federal Government should not pass the burden of petrol subsidy withdrawal to Nigerians.
It said Nigerians cannot bear the cost of petrol hike because they have been impoverished, adding that citizens should not be made to pay for the inefficiency of the government.
He said: “Nigerians also cannot bear it (the cost of petrol hike) because they are so impoverished that they can’t also bear the inefficiency of our system for these numbers of years.
“We are the only member of the Operation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that is importing refined products. It is because of the inefficiency of governments – both past and present – that we are not able to fix our refineries.”
