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Fuel price hike latest: Court
didn’t outlaw strike, says NBA
•As NLC writes N/Assembly
MALACHY UZENDU, Abuja and FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE,
Lagos
NIGERIAN Bar
Association (NBA) yesterday told the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) that no court
injunction can outlaw the right of Nigerians to protest any fuel price hike.
NBA stated this as the NLC wrote the
National Assembly urging it to prevail on President Olusegun Obasanjo to revert
to the old prices of petroleum products.
The lawyers’ body at a press briefing by
the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO) which is strategising for an
effective planned protest, threw its weight behind the October 11 stay-at-home
action of NLC over the recent fuel price hike.
NBA also expressed its readiness to offer
free legal services to any Nigerian arrested for protesting an unfavourable
government’s policy.
NLC had last week handed the federal
government a two-week ultimatum, expiring October 11, to withdraw the recent
fuel price hike, which has seen the pump price of petrol jumped to between N53
to N60 a litre in different parts of the country, or Labour would ask workers
and other affected groups to stay at home.
NBA, represented by its Ikeja branch
chairman, Mr. Adekunle Ojo, at the briefing, said it supported NLC’s planned
action.
Mr. Ojo declared that no court injunction
could ban Nigerians from showing or expressing grievances over government,
actions and policies, pointing out that Chief Judge of the Federal High Court,
Justice Roseline Ukeje’s judgement on the N1.50 fuel tax was not binding on
general fuel price hike protest.
"The ruling is only on fuel tax. This
time, NBA is fully involved, no gang up against the NLC can defeat the
struggle," he said.
The judgement had outlawed the power of
the NLC to organise strikes, among others.
The NBA chairman said, that "let me tell
you now, Nigerians are protected against assault, free legal services are
available for anybody arrested during the strike; this is a struggle we all must
fight to a logical conclusion."
Represented at the briefing were leaders
of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Congress of Free Trade Union (CFTU), National
Conscience Party (NCP), United Action for Democracy (UAD), Campaign for
Democracy (CD), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as well as the
National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), among others.
Spokesman of LASCO, Dr Beko Ransome Kuti,
while urging Nigerians once again to rise up and defend their rights, said the
government had shown it had nothing to offer other than to crush opposition.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, he stated,
had again, by the sudden fuel price hike, dared the people with the hope that
their resistance had waned.
He accused government of ignoring the
people’s "cries over unbearable economic situation, hunger, poverty,
homelessness, unemployment, illiteracy, bad roads, poor and erratic electricity
supply, lack of potable water and absence of security of lives and property."
Dr Ransome-Kuti lamented that the people
had in the last five years groaned under adverse and excruciating conditions,
noting "we have watched with anxiety hoping to see improvement in our conditions
of living, to no avail.
"Instead of improvement, our people have
sunk deeper into poverty and unemployment. Our old people and pensioners are
seen trudging from office to office trying to get paid after using their
energies at youth to work, all to no avail", he noted.
Justifying the October 11 plan, the
activist argued that government had continued to insult the people’s
sensibilities by saying that things must get worse before they get better.
"It is common to hear comparisons of our
present plight with what obtained during the dreaded Abacha regime — something
that sounds like blasphemy to many of us.
"We cannot be slaves in our own country;
we, the people, should determine the prices of petrol, kerosine and diesel and
not Obasanjo", he urged.
He, therefore, demanded immediate reversal
of the fuel price to the old rate as the only panacea to the looming action.
Corroborating Dr Ramsome-Kuti’s position,
Chief John Kolawole (ITUC), Mr Didi Adodo (IFTU) and Denja Yaqub (NLC), said
members of their organisaitons have been fully mobilised for the action.
They urged Nigerians to make a statement
that the government was not for them and that Labour still remained their voice,
adding "we should not be tired of protests in as much as they are not tired of
oppressing us, enough is enough."
Meanwhile, a letter dated September 30 and
addressed to senate President Adolphus Wabara and Speaker of House of
Representatives, Aminu Bello Masari and signed by Salihu Lukman, NLC Acting
Secretary, the legislators were urged to make the issue a priority as they
reconvened from recess.
Describing the fuel price increases as
"moral equivalent of a death sentence," the central labour body declared that if
the matter is not resolved, Nigerian workers and "its civil society allies/mass
organisation, would organise a sit-at-home campaign/protest by October 11,
2004."
NLC reiterated that the fuel price hike
had already had negative impact on "transportation in food items, drugs and
healthcare to worsen the decline in real earnings of wage earners and non-wage
earners, which practically translate to growing poverty."
NLC maintained that escalating cost of
petroleum products had made the cost of Nigerian products less competitive, it
noted that such increases would make industrial closures inevitable.
It noted that it had urged President
Obasanjo to convene stakeholders’ forum so as to discuss the imperatives, but
was ignored by government.
Urging the National Assembly to treat the
issue as priority, NLC noted that revisiting "existing proposals, including the
ones in the private members’ bill sponsored by Mr. Speaker.
"Everything must be done by the Honourable
House in the light of the challenge of helping Mr. President to appreciate the
need to give the Nigerian peoples’ care for reversal of price increases the
urgent consideration that it deserves.
"As such, Nigerian workers and people
would eagerly await the expecteing of the Honourable House and expert its
esteemed membership to as usual, strongly represent the sentiments and
opposition of the people to Mr. President over the insensitive and punitive
price increases," the letter further read.
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