Adams Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo, says the federal government has a plan to cushion the effect of petrol subsidy removal on Nigerians.
On Sunday, a federal government delegation which included
Oshiomhole, held a meeting with representatives of the Trade Union Congress
(TUC) at the presidential villa, in Abuja.
Festus Osifo, TUC president, who spoke after the meeting,
confirmed that a list of demands had been submitted to the federal government,
adding that the union will continue with the dialogue on Tuesday.
Dele Alake, spokesperson for the government’s delegation, said the demands of the union to cushion the effect of subsidy removal, include an increase in the minimum wage and tax holidays for certain categories of people.
On his part, Oshiomole, who spoke in an interview after the
meeting, said: “This president recognises 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 realise 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.
“Because 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 wage increase,” he added.
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