by Lekan Olanrewaju

Call it Fear Factor: NLC Edition.

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has delivered a warning to the Federal Government over proposed increases in fuel prices.

In a statement released yesterday, the Acting General Secretary of the NLC, Comrade Owei Lakemfa, stated that the government was scared of the power of the NLC, and was thus plotting to break up the organisation by setting up a new labour centre.

“They are hiding under this guise to register a new labour centre which they hope will support anti-people policies and cause distractions in the labour movement,” Comrade Owei Lakemfa said. “These government agents have even fixed July 2012 as the registration date of their proposed new labour centre. The hawks in government who see the NLC as being too powerful and capable of checkmating undemocratic and unpatriotic moves by the political class have come to the conclusion that the best way out was to engineer internal disagreements in the NLC, and, hiding under this guise, is set to register a new labour centre.”

“The NLC advises the trade unionists who have enlisted for this anti-people project, and those being enticed to join them, to retrace their steps as the Congress will not allow the ranks of the working people to be split. The NLC and its allies put the working people on the alert for a struggle to stop this move,” Comrade Lakemfa continues to allege.

Going further to address the government directly, he says, “The NLC also calls on President Jonathan to stop his officials who are engaged in renewed campaigns to further increase the price of fuel under the guise of a nebulous deregulation policy which the House of Representatives has exposed as being fraudulent.”

“With the serious security challenges in the country, the heating up of the polity by politicians and rising poverty in the land, the NLC calls on President Jonathan to call the agents of his government to order on the twin issues of trying to break up the NLC by fiat and increasing fuel price. These are unnecessary battles which the government cannot win.”