The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is going to court to seek legal opinion on the constitutional propriety of the Christopher Kolade Committee on Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment (SURE) Programme Board, its President, Comrade Abdulwahed Omar, said yesterday. �
President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday appointed Kolade as the chairman of SURE to, among other thing, ?oversee and ensure the effective and timely implementation of projects to be funded with the savings accruing to the Federal Government from subsidy removal.?�
The union also said it will meet with the TUC tomorrow to issue a clear directive on the date coordinated nationwide general strikes, mass rallies and street protests will commence, and the methodology of the protests.
In a statement issued in Abuja, Omar also described the committee set up by President Jonathan, under the headship of former Chief Justice of the Federation Alfa Modibbo Belgore, to dialogue with labour and the Kolade committee, as an afterthought ?meant to give Nigerians the impression that the Government wants to consult Nigerians.?
?First, the Presidency had invited Labour to a follow-up discussion on the issue of fuel subsidy removal only for it to abort the process by removing the subsidy. Secondly, it announced to Nigerians that it was consulting them on the issue only for it to announce new PMS prices. Thirdly, the government announced that even if the subsidy is to be removed, it will be from April 1, 2012 only for it to carry out same on January 1, 2012.
On the claim by government that organised labour had given its support to subsidy removal, acting General Secretary of the NLC Comrade Owei Lakemfa lamented that ?no one would have believed that the revered office of the President could stoop so low to tell a lie.
?In a bid to defend the Presidency on the misleading and callous imposition of astronomical increase in fuel prices on Nigerians, the Special Adviser on Media to President Jonathan, Dr. Reuben Abati told the media that Labour was in support of the subsidy removal.
?His claim that Labour was consulted and had given support to whatever government does on the issue of removal of subsidy is a blatant lie. In the first place, the leadership of the Labour Movement had held only one meeting with the Federal Government on the issue of oil subsidy. This was on Tuesday 20th December, 2011 and that meeting was not conclusive, as it was agreed that a follow-up meeting will be called by the Presidency.
?Secondly, the outcome of that meeting was immediately made public through a press statement, and up till now, the presidency has not disputed its content. At the meeting, the Labour Movement had noted that it was not only impossible for the Federal Government to implement a fifth of the projects outlined in the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE), but that the presentation by the Presidency on the issue of oil subsidy ?was simply a repetition of the presentations made by the Babangida and Abacha regimes and the Obasanjo administration, and that none of those promises were kept?.
He added that the report of the meeting ?as we have stated, is in the public domain. We reiterate what we told Government, that Labour and the people stand opposed to fuel subsidy removal and hikes in the price of fuel. No amount of blackmail, propaganda or intimidation will deter Nigerians from reclaiming their country.
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