KADUNA — NORTH West zone of the Campaign for Democracy (CD) has declared its support for the nation-wide strike action by workers over the latest increase in prices of petroleum products.
Vice president of the organisation in the zone, Abdullahi Ahmed who made this known in a statement in Kaduna yesterday said it was shameful that Nigeria was the only OPEC member nation that still depend on exclusive importation of fuel for her domestic use.
Ahmed said that the Nigerian masses were now so impoverished that they needed to go on the strike as a way of saving their souls from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led government of neo-imperialists.”
The CD boss spoke as Civil Society Alliance of Nigeria (CISAN) urged workers to shun the strike because according to it, the situation would not change by the strike.
But according to CD the current efforts by the government “to demonize the Adams Oshionmole - led NLC in order to weaken it” would not deter Nigerian workers from embarking on the strike.
“The incessant fuel price increase since the inception of this government in 1999 should unavoidably be checkmated before it drags us to a near calamitous situation whereby the masses would be forced to confront the non-challant attitude of the government towards the suffering of the masses.
The recent increment in the price made it the 9th time within a period of 5 years this government assumed power. Since fuel remains the life blood of our economy with any increase having a chain effect on other sectors of the economy, the damaging crippling effect it has on our socio-economic life has gone beyond what can be contained.
“The general condition of Nigerians under the present administration since inception could be likened to the plight of a people currently on a horn of dilemma.
“The economy is by the day dragging closer to the cess-pit of strangulation due to the prevailing poverty level, the skyrocketing prices of petroleum products and continued abysmal sink in the value of the Nigerian currency all entrenched in a country that prides itself as the sixth largest exporter of crude oil and a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) . And this is happening when the price of crude oil is hitting the rooftop at the international scene, Ahmed concluded.
