President Bola Tinubu will face his first “acid test” with the withdrawal of subsidies on Premium Motor Spirit, also known as gasoline, according to the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Salihu Lukman, the National Vice Chairman of the APC for the North-West, made this revelation in a statement titled “Nigerian Democracy and the Challenge of Governance” that was released in Abuja.
According to Lukman, the Nigerian people’s response and the Nigeria Labour Congress’ threat to initiate a strike have called into question the President’s and the APC’s commitment to launching fresh efforts “to radically reform, modernize, and move our nation forward.”
Less than a day after the Nigeria Labour Congress postponed its scheduled statewide strike for Wednesday, the APC chieftain reacted.
More than anything else, Lukman claimed, the fuel subsidy debate “tests the resolve of President Tinubu and the APC in terms of whether new initiatives will be put forth to courageously unite Nigerians ‘to radically reform, modernise and move our nation forward’.” The question is whether we want to keep allocating nearly 30% of our entire income to gasoline import subsidies.
The reality is that managing the astronomical cost of fuel subsidy payments is the first litmus test for whether President Tinubu’s government will be committed to implementing the economic reforms he promised Nigerians during the campaign would’support the fiscal obligations demanded by modern democratic governance.’
“Undoubtedly, this will call for gutsy and bold choices. The ability to mobilize Nigerians to support the government’s initiative may be even more important than that. Engagements and conversations with the goal of achieving agreements that will strategically commit citizens to both support government efforts and discharge complementary responsibilities are necessary to mobilize Nigerians to support such activities.
Accordingly, it will be simpler for organized labor to establish a functional relationship with the APC and its governments at all levels and work to defend and advance the interests of Nigerian workers than it will be for the NLC and its allies to retake the Labour Party and use it to support candidates and win elections.
The old distractions of managing organized labor’s strike actions would persist once negotiation is limited to getting organized labor to accept the new policy of withdrawing fuel subsidies without entering into a partnership agreement with organized labor aimed at securing functional relationship to negotiate the roll out of difficult policies, which would be considered necessary to move Nigeria forward.
