A CIVIL society organization, United Campaign Against Anti-People Policies (UCAPP), has demanded of the federal government the reversal of recent increases in petrol prices, a minimum wage of at least N200,000 with annual increments, no more increases in electricity prices, free healthcare for all, and free education from primary to tertiary levels from the Federal Government of Nigeria.
In a press statement signed by Akande Daniel B., UCAPP said it will seek to integrate rank-and-file workers for a new labour force and called on Nigeria’s two labour centres to lead a resolute fight for these demands and against the government’s anti-people policies.
The organisation appealed to the rank-and-file of the working-class in the formal and informal sectors, the trade unions, CSOs, and NGOs to come together as a unified force against the corrupt elite.
UCAPP also demanded the revitalisation of all four moribund refineries under democratic public control and a new wage structure to compensate for the current economic conditions across all sectors while condemning the Nigerian government’s draconian loan conditions for students and demanding free, functional, and quality education for all.
The press statement reads in part: “Tinubu’s ongoing crusade of neoliberal economy policies built on deregulation, privatization and taxing the poor is forcefully pushing the lives of the working class, poor masses, traders and farmers down the cesspit of poverty.
“A few states and some ministries in Abuja have adopted three work days per week. This is a bid to ease the overwhelming hike in transportation fares. This could be adopted far more widely if the trade unions took up the issue. The student loan scheme as proposed by the Tinubu regime is most certainly a pure gimmick deployed to completely commercialize education and encourage further increases in tuition fees.
“One would rightly assume that the two national labour centres (NLC and TUC) would confront these oppressive schemes and strongly rebuff their enforcement with grit. However, the leadership of the labour movement has shown over the years that they lack the basic political and economic ideology that can put forward a clear pro-workers position and alternative against the resolutions and policies of the ruling elites. They would rather try to support social dialogue and sit in endless committee meetings rather than lead a consistent fight against the Government’s anti-poor policies.”
