The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has condemned the proposal from the Federal government to increase the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as fuel in the second quarter of 2022.
Speaking after a National Administrative Council (NAC) meeting of the union on Monday in Abuja, the President of the Union, Alh. Tajudeen Ibikunle Baruwa said the proposed increase of fuel price will devastate the Nigerian economy.
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According to him, “the NAC meeting considered that the intended increase in the pump price of petrol is ill-timed and insensitive to the appalling suffering, hardship and hunger that Nigerians are currently facing, occasioned by the harsh economic situation in the country.
“NAC notes that any such increase at this critical period amounts to a direct attack on the already impoverished masses of the nation and will have spiraling effects on all other sectors of the economy.”
The President stated that the Union “notes with dismay, the unpatriotic calls by some Nigerians for the removal of the petroleum subsidy; and calls on the Federal Government to ignore such calls as they are not only ill-fated, but also anti-progressive.
“The NAC in session strongly believes that a withdrawal of the subsidy will have adverse effect on the already traumatized masses of the Nigerian Nation.
“That the drivers who constitute our membership will be at the worst receiving end of such increase/subsidy removal; and without any monthly remunerations to fall back on, will be entirely left on their own to bear the brunt of such action.
“That coming barely one year after the nationwide disruption of our activities by first, the COVID-19 lockdown closely followed by the EndSARS protest, any increase in the cost of petrol at this time will only serve to further impoverish our members who are struggling to rise from the effects of the said not-too-distant disruptions.
“Considering the facts that majority of our members depend on day to day hustle to eke a living within the informal sector they belong; are currently defraying cost of hire purchase on vehicles they purchased at exorbitant rates; not to mention incidences of multiple taxations by agents of local, state and federal governments; these impediments coming one after the other constitute straws targeted at breaking the proverbial camel’s back,” Baruwa noted.
He said the National Union of Road Transport Workers is fervently adverse to the proposed increase and calls on the Federal government to seize forthwith, any such deliberations in order not to ground the stressed/overburdened transport sector and by extension, the Nigerian economy.