Ayuba Wabba, the immediate past president of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has tackled Nigerian cement manufacturers over their exorbitant price fixing.
The NLC directed a nation-wide protest after meetings between the union and President Bola Tinubu’s representatives ended in a deadlock.
The protest against Tinubu’s hasty removal of fuel subsidy took a new dimension on Wednesday when Wabba took on Dangote Cement Plc, BUA Cement Plc and Lafarge Africa plc.
Wabba said, “All around the world, nowhere is the bourgeoisie that forms 10 per cent continue to give us what we want, and they feast on 90 per cent of Nigerians. Find out how their lifestyle is- very bogus. They feast actually on the poor. They feast on the working class. We create the wealth of this country, but yet few people misappropriate wealth, and we live in penury.
“I was engaging my colleague in Senegal few weeks ago about the price of cement because some of the businessmen here also have investments in Senegal and they said no when they wanted to behave like the way the behave in Nigeria.
“Senegalese government told them they cannot fix the price of cement. It is government that will fix the price of cement. We know your profit margin. We know how much you spend to do this business and therefore government must fix the price. In Zambia, the same thing. The government fixes the price. Why exploit the people when we have these resources given to us free of charge? Why should we suffer the consequences?”
Dangote Cement, BUA and Lafarge are the leading manufacturers of cement in Nigeria.
