Labour protest: ‘Let the poor breathe,’ NLC beg Tinubu

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Wednesday, commenced its planned protest in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Enugu, among other States with placards expressing their displeasure over the subsidy removal by President Bola Tinubu.

The National President of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Muhammed Ibrahim, representatives of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, National Union of Road Transport Workers among others are currently gathered at the Unity Fountain, Abuja and other States of the federation for the protest.

One of the placards seen by our reporter read, “Tinubu, listen to Nigerians not IMF and World Bank. Let the poor breathe”.

The protest, TrackNews Media gathered, is going on despite last minute efforts including a nationwide broadcast by President Tinubu where he reacted to some concerns raised by labour.

However, critics have pointed out that the broadcast failed to address fundamental issues including local production of petroleum products and the fact that prices would continue to go up in a deregulated foreign exchange regime that leaves the price of the product at the vagaries of international markets.

NLC insisted that its planned protest against fuel subsidy removal would hold today and has indeed commenced nationwide.

At Kano NLC protest, the unionists said the Federal Government’s palliative measure to cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy is deceptive.

The chapter, which joined the national body’s nationwide protest, lamented that just two months into Tinubu’s administration, he had declared war on the masses with his “unpopular policies”.

Kabiru Inuwa, Chairman of the NLC in Kano said the union is not a political party and would never play politics with the lives of Nigerians.

He expressed shock that the government had planned to stop the protest through a court order, saying it showed unfriendliness to Nigerians