Adams Oshiomhole, a former governor of Edo State, expressed optimism that disagreements between the federal government and organised labour over the elimination of fuel subsidies would be speedily handled.
President Bola Tinubu is aware of the effects the removal of gasoline subsidies is having on Nigerians, according to Oshiomhole, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, and is committed to move quickly to mitigate those effects.
The Federal Government and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) met on Sunday, and the former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NUC) claimed the meeting was fruitful. He said that the government would take all of the TUC’s demands into consideration and respond on Tuesday.
He claimed that the Federal Government could use some of the approximately N7 trillion Nigeria can save by ending subsidies to fund wage increases, as “those savings will go into the federation account which will be distributed among the three tiers of government and so every tier of government will have more money and should be able to meet the consequential increase in wages.”
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“This president recognizes that the effect of the withdrawal is already here, people are already going through some level of discomfort and therefore there has to be an immediate solution to it.
“Now that immediate solution is what we discussed and the fact that we are meeting on Tuesday again shows that clearly, we realize that this is not one of those things you want to buy time because it has a real negative impact, on particularly, the most vulnerable group.
“But we have a solution to it because you are going to make savings, so take from that savings or even if it is borrowing. So, whatever it is, you can leverage some revenue and improve wages to cushion the cost of living, I think it is legitimate, I think it is doable, it is not something that you want to spend two to three months negotiating,” Oshiomhole said.
