FRI, DEC 15 2023-theGBJournal|The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), says it vehemently reject the recent advice by the World Bank urging the Nigerian government to increase petrol prices to N750 per litre.
The NLC in a statement signed by its President, Comrade Joe Ajaero on Friday said, the World Bank’s lead economist for Nigeria, ”Alex Sienaert, corroborated this unwarranted recommendation during a presentation in Abuja, reinforcing the need for the government to abandon its commitment to the people and embrace policies that only serve the interests of foreign entities.”
According to the NLC, ”it is an advise laden with mischief and intended to destabilize not only the nation’s economy but also Nigeria’s long term development plans.
It further demonstrates to doubting Thomases that the Bretton Wood institutions who are the arrowheads of the neoliberal school is not pro-poor but is steeped in predatory policies that beggar the poor so that the rich will become richer.”
Recall that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu told the whole country during his May 29, 2023 inaugural speech that “subsidy is gone”, a subsidy which the NLC says is non-existent.
The NLC said the World Bank has really shown itself to be an enemy of the Nigerian nation suggesting that its ”continued grandstanding and generation on anti-poor policies and programmes have destabilized many countries of the South especially nations within the sub-Saharan region.”
”The difficulties and suffering created by the last hike in the price of PMS which was a product of the advice of the World Bank and its sister institution; the IMF are still ravaging the nation destroying in its wake the nation’s industrial base and domestic manufacturing capacity which favours Western metropoles.”
The Labour Congress argues that it is convinced that foreign interventions, particularly those dictated by the World Bank and IMF, have a history of exacerbating economic disparities in third-world countries.
”We assert that it is not only impractical but truly immoral for the World bank to persistently advocate for policies that endanger the lives and livelihoods of citizens, imperiling our nation.”
It called on the call on the federal government to resist the temptation to implement policies that cater to the interests of international bodies, even at the expense of the well-being of its citizens.
It criticized the World Bank ”hypocritical”, saying that it fails to see the nexus between price and capacity.
Our local reality, according to the NLC is that we cannot think of increasing the Pump price of PMS any further as it is a product whose price is pivotal in determining the price of other items in the country. We cannot toy with a prescription that is akin to a suicide Pill. We urge the federal Government not to be tempted in anyway to swallow that Pill. ”It will wreck the nation further.”
The NLC consequently urged the federal Government to distance itself from such prescription as it is an ill-motivated advice that will further devastate our nation and increase the suffering and angst in the nation.
”The World Bank should allow Nigeria to govern itself and stop its meddlesomeness in our internal affairs which we consider very rude and insensitive. World Bank is truly part of the problem of Nigeria,” the NLC said.
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