Remember that the President, Bola Tinubu had written to the house , Wednesday to seek support of having N500bn palliative to cushion Fuel Subsidy removal and soften the hardships confronting workers.
The Nigeria Labour congress and Trade Union congress have rebuffed the President proposal to the parliamentarian.
The National Treasurer of the NLC, Hakeem Ambali, who spoke in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, questioned the extent to which the palliative would cover.
The unions are instead demanding a 300 per cent salary increase to enable workers to cope with the challenges imposed by the deteriorating economic situation that came with the removal of the controversial fuel subsidy.
“Minimum wage review of 300 per cent to all workers; granting licences to individuals for modular refineries to refine petrol locally; granting economic stimulus loan to SMEs at 15 per cent rate.’’
Adding that the money if granted would not be enough for 125 million Nigerians who are believed to be living in poverty.
“Definitely not. We have over 125m Nigerians that are technically poor. To what extent can this cushion the effects of this economic hardship?”
He added, ‘’The government should provide social benefits for aged and unemployed youths; agric loans to farmers and youths through the Agric Bank and community banks at single digit rate; provide alternative energy supply such as massive investment in solar power and Compressed Natural Gas to motorists.
“Fix the refineries; reverse the privatisation of electricity back to the state due to poor performance; Execute metro rail line projects in all state capitals and reduction of school fees for students of tertiary institutions.
