Bola Tinubu, Kashim Shettima’s former presidential campaign council member Bayo Onanuga has urged Nigerians, especially workers, to disregard the call for a strike by NLC President Joe Ajaero on the withdrawal of the petrol subsidy next Wednesday.
Onanuga claimed Ajaero is acting out the opposition Labour Party’s, LP, script and playing the political game, alleging he is trying to topple President Bola Tinubu‘s government.
Onanuga claimed in a post on his verified Twitter account on Friday that the NLC president is aware of the harrowing financial data that, in his opinion, demonstrate why subsidies should have been eliminated long ago.
Onanuga questioned whose interests Ajaero was advancing, saying that he (Ajaero) did not disagree with the LP’s position or that of Peter Obi, its presidential candidate, who he said promised to remove subsidies from the start if elected.
Onanuga cited the N77 trillion national debt and the approximately N2.4 trillion owed to the NNPC Limited for prior subsidies as justification for why gasoline subsidies are no longer viable.
He called on the Nigerian people and workers to “support the government as it works out new wages and rolls out other interventions, as promised by the President, to mitigate the effects of new fuel price.”
The statement read:
“The Politically tainted NLC, TUC
“NLC President Joe Ajaero has asked workers to go on strike next Wednesday over the removal of petrol subsidy, despite being privy to the distressing financial figures, which justified why subsidy ought to have been scrapped a long time ago. My advice to the perceptive workers and the Nigerian populace is simply to ignore Ajaero and his ilk. He is playing politics and is actually acting the script of the opposition Labour Party, out to destabilise the young Tinubu administration.
“Besides, one wonders whose interest Ajaero is championing, when he did not oppose the position of his Labour Party and presidential candidate, who campaigned with the promise to scrap subsidy from Day One, if elected.
“NLC and TUC leaders knew since last year November that subsidy will be scrapped from July 1 as no provision has been made in the budget for it, beyond this date.
“The Federal Government which already commits 96 percent of its revenue in servicing debt is not in any position to continue selling subsidised fuel, most of which is smuggled across our borders for criminal and obscenely unpatriotic profit.
Subsidy of fuel is no longer sustainable as the FG is virtually broke. Apart from its N77 trillion debt, it also owes the NNPC Limited about N2.4trillion for past subsidies.
“The Nigerian people and workers should support the government as it works out new wages and rolls out other interventions, as promised by President Tinubu, to mitigate the effects of the new fuel price.
“Let’s not make ourselves pawns in the hands of the politically biased and tainted NLC and TUC. Ajaero is no more a labour leader. He is a politician and leader of the Labour Party. He is no more representing all the Nigerian workers.”