Organised labour, civil liberty organisations, civil society organisations and other residents of Plateau State on Wednesday trooped out in their numbers to reject what they called “anti-poor policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration.”
The peaceful protest which was led by the State NLC Chairman, Comrade Eugene Manji and other notable union leaders in the state took place under the State Secretariat flyover where thought-provoking speeches were rendered, denouncing the present administration for the hardship in the country.
Comrade Steve Aluko of the Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO) said the removal of fuel subsidy is an anti-poor policy that must be rejected by all Nigerians adding that Nigerians must stand out for their right.
“Nigerians should not wait for NLC to defend their rights. We should break this issue of conspiracy of silence on issues that directly affect you. Nigerians should stop this sentiment of ethnicity and regionalism because issues of governance affect all of us.
“Let Nigeria come out en mass and said no to anti-people policies. This government has overtasked the poor people of this nation, we should unanimously reject this”
Manji said, “we are out to demonstrate that Plateau workers and citizens are part of this protest to reject the anti-poor policies of this administration. And we are here to say capital no to subsidy removal.
“We are here today on a protest embarked upon by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), ASSU Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) Student Union Government bodies of various Institutions in Plateau State are in this protest. Plateau State is part of that protest and that is why we are here.
“The protest is because of the poor policies of the government what we’re facing and what we are going to face in the future nobody can understand. Now September is close by and I wonder how parents are going to pay the school fees of their children, this is part of the danger of what we are facing.
“The increase in pump price is another part of it, when we were talking, people thought we are antagonizing government. Shortly before you know we were at N537 and with a skyrocketed move to N617.
“The economy is driven by foreign policies and we have advised the government to look into this by putting measures before the removal of subsidy because this is the consequences we were talking about. People refused to see reason with the position of labour, here we are practically facing.
“What we are saying is that while you removed the subsidy, fix our refineries and refined our petrol and ensure everything is sold in Nigeria naira and kobo, once you buy today you will rest assured of what price you’re going to buy tomorrow. But because you take the crude oil and refined it in the international market, bringing it and selling it in hard currencies.
“Today the transportation is zero, insecurity in the country you can’t quantify it, we want to put a stop to that, your government should hear the cry of Nigerians we elected them. We are going far with this protest if not you won’t see us here.”
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