Anayo Ezugwu 
The Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the February 25 general election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has criticised the Nigerian labour unions’ attitude towards the fuel subsidy debacle.
Adebayo in a statement issued on Wednesday said the unions were in support of the Labour Party that promised to remove the fuel subsidy if voted in office during the last general election.
He wondered why the same unions, especially the Trade Union Congress (TUC), are criticising the pronouncement of President Bola Tinubu’s removal of the subsidy.
Adebayo said, “They supported the removal of the subsidy with the political parties. They are now looking for negotiation and discussion when the government that made that policy was around. They didn’t go for negotiation.”
He said it was too late in the day for the labour unions to be complaining about the fuel subsidy removal when they should have tackled the Muhammadu Buhari administration while in office.
Adebayo wondered why they were complaining now when, in actual fact, all of them, including the Labour Party supported the removal of fuel subsidy.
“TUC and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) were not overseas when the Appropriation Act 2023 was passed. Where were they to engage on that issue? When the debate was still in the open as to whether we should form a government that would remove subsidy or not, they went with the people that said they would remove subsidy.
“For as long we continue and allow people to take advantage of the leadership of Nigerian workers, we would not address this issue. There are two positions you can take on subsidy. Remove or not to remove. They were on the side of removal.
“They were also around when the immediate past government passed the PIA. PEGASSAN, the industrial union, representing them, was supporting it. PEGASSAN met in Calabar and said the subsidy must go. In the course of electioneering, the Appropriation Act was passed.
“They didn’t fight or argue with the government, and the government passed the law. The reason why we are discussing this now is because of what I consider a mistake from the president to make a policy statement on that sensitive issue in an unclear way in his inauguration address which has now caused some panic before the policy would take effect,” he said.
Adebayo said the results of the election showed that the people also wanted the removal of subsidy. “If you look at the votes, you would see that the voters voted overwhelming for the political parties who said they are going to remove fuel subsidy. They voted for APC, PDP, and labour in that order.”
He said he was not surprised at the pronouncement of Tinubu that the fuel subsidy ceases to exist though he frowned at what he called the poor policy Communication of the president to the people, who he said, are going to bear the brunt of the effect of the removal.
He insisted that it was only SDP that campaigned that it would continue the subsidy arrangement by removing the corruption inherent in the process even as he explained despite the legal landmines around the Petroleum Industry Act, he would have negotiated his way out to continue the fuel subsidy if his party had won the election.
