THE President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has stated that if the Labour Party’s (LP) 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi, had been elected President of Nigeria, and he adopted the policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the Labour union would have disowned him.
Ajaero, who appeared today on Channels Television’s, the Morning Brief breakfast show, described the NLC’s position on the removal of petrol and electricity subsidies as “fixated,” adding that the Labour union would have a tough time with any LP President who implements Bretton Woods institutions’ policies supporting the removal of subsidies on electricity tariffs and petrol.
The NLC President said, “He (Obi) is the presidential candidate of Labour Party but does he own NLC or the Labour Party? Why can’t you separate them? Whosoever is the presidential candidate or official of the Labour Party must buy into our projects. If he says he was going to undertake those policies, let him be elected and try such policies.
“Whether a presidential candidate of a party that Labour forms would dictate for Labour? The answer is known to everybody. The policies of Labour, the ideologies of Labour are clear and we are going to pursue it. If anybody is coming with another ideology, he is going to have it tough with us because that is not what we stand for.
“It (our approach) would have been worst for anybody flying the flag of Labour Party to come and implement these policies, to come and adopt the policies of the IMF and the World Bank. It would have been worst for the person. In fact, we would disown the person, he would be on his own. We have to make this distinction clear.”
Meanwhile, Ajaero has stated that electricity tariff hike pushes up inflation, insisting that the recent increase by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and distribution companies in the country must be immediately reversed.
“Unknown to people, this issue of tariff increase is determined by inflation and the value of the currency,” NLC President Joe Ajaero said on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief show on Tuesday.
“NERC takes these two major variables to determine tariff increase. Unknown to the same NERC, each time you increase tariff, it leads to another inflation which within few months, they would see demand for another tariff increase. And this is happening on and on and there is no control over it.”
On April 3, 2024, NERC raised electricity tariffs for customers with 20 hours of daily power supply, classified as Band A. The increase saw customers pay N225 per hour, up from the current N66, which has been heavily criticized by many Nigerians due to the immediacy of the tariff hike and the current hardship in the land. Following the outrage, NERC asked discos to reduce electricity usage.
Yesterday, the NLC and TUC picketed NERC offices and discos to press their demands. Ajaero criticized NERC’s recent “politics of reduction.” He argued that NERC and discos must first reverse tariffs to old rates and negotiate with Labour unions and other stakeholders.
