NLC demands recommissioning of refineries, salary review 

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), yesterday, demanded the recommissioning of Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries in keeping with the agreement it had with the Federal Government on October 5, 2023.

The labour body said it was sad that the country could afford to keep its public refineries shut, while still importing refined petroleum products.

NLC President, Joe Ajaero, made the demand at the 8th Quadrennial Delegates’ Conference of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) in Abuja.

He lamented that the nation’s macroeconomic indices were all heading down south without any letting.

Ajaero said the electricity tariff had gone up, “making power almost inaccessible to a greater number of our citizens.”

He fumed that petrol prices had also gone up, and were nearly impossible for an average Nigerian to afford, while transportation has thus become difficult, leading to unprecedented levels of food scarcity and hunger in the country.

“With all these challenges, Congress has demanded a review of workers’ salaries in lieu of its eroded values,” he said.

The NLC boss sought unity and strength of workers to “creatively engage the forces and make governance work for a greater number of workers and people.”

He said the forces of neoliberalism must be challenged, stating that the trade union movement remained the only viable force in Nigeria and the world that could creatively engage it and mitigate its stranglehold on the nation.

Ajaero added: “As it is today, our choices are very limited. It is either we find a way to collectively overcome the forces that are bent on keeping us down as a people or we completely surrender to them while wringing our hands in hopelessness.

“We must offer strong counterpoise to their prebendal logic and must proffer newer arguments to triumph over their quest for profit at the detriment of the social will. It is only by remaining strong and united that we can hope to achieve that.