The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has told the federal government to quickly reverse the petrol price increase.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, on Wednesday, increased the price of premium motor spirit (PMS) also known as petrol across its retail outlets in the country.
But in his reaction through a a statement, Joe Ajaero, president of the NLC, said the labour union is “dismayed” by the petrol hike without adequate financial capacity of Nigerians.
He added that the latest petrol price hike has “grossly altered the calculation” of Nigerians, who are still trying to adjust to the current economic realities.
“We challenge the government to go to the drawing board and present us with a blueprint for inclusive economic growth and national development instead of this spasmodic ad hocism and palliative policy,” the statement reads.
“It needs no stating the fact that the latest wave of increase has grossly altered the calculations of Nigerians once again at a time they were reluctantly coming to terms with their new realities.
“It will further deepen poverty as production capacities dip and more jobs are lost with multidimensional negative effects.
“In light of this, we urge the government to immediately reverse this rate hike as previous increases did not produce any good results. People only got poorer.
“But more fundamentally, the government should be bold enough to tell Nigerians in advance the destination it wants to take the country.”