A Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on Sunday decried their alleged exclusion by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the ongoing fuel subsidy negotiation with the Federal Government.

They stated this in a statement signed by Dr. Basil Yelwa Musa and Malam Haruna Maigida, its convener and co-convener respectfully and released in Abuja.

They said any agreement the NLC reaches with the Federal Government without carrying them along would not be acceptable.

The coalition which comprises of 65 different organisations added that that any negotiation done in the absence of CSOs would only end up serving the interest of NLC with about 35.6 million workers, leaving out 175.4 million Nigerians not captured.

The CSOs raised concern about the proposed salary increment by NLC for the workers without factoring palliatives for the citizens in the informal sector.

They said given that it is the CSOs that know the depth of hash condition Nigerians are going through, they therefore called on the Federal Government to stop further negotiation with NLC until the CSOs are co-opted into it.

They called on the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. George Akume and other key government officials involved in the negotiation to immediately draft the CSOs and other stakeholders to an all-encompassing discussion that will provide a lasting solution.

They described as backstabbing, the turn of events when the NLC’s current leaders chose to hold meetings with the representatives of the Federal Government without them.

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They recalled that in the times past, CSOs were drafted into the struggle to protest when there were breaches of agreements with the Federal Government.

They called on the Federal Government to investigate the discrepancies recorded in the subsidy figures during the last administration and the current one.

“In the history of Nigeria, this is the first time, the fuel subsidy was removed with dare consequences as petroleum pump price surged to over 35 per cent with its attendant hike in food stuff and other commodities.

“This, the CSOs viewed as unsustainable as Nigerians can no longer live their average life due to difficulties.

“The coalition also called on the Federal Government to probe all fuel subsidy payments for the past years and ensure that all illegal payments are recovered for servicing of the country.

“This becomes necessary as the latest figure showed a drastic reduction in the consumption of litres of fuel per day, after fuel subsidy was scrapped by President Bola Tinubu on May 29.

“The coalition insists that it remains a mystery for litres of petrol consumption to have dropped from 66 million per day to 40 million.

“Investigation into activities of fuel subsidies will reveal the threshold of scam that has been existing in the oil and gas industry for several years which Nigerians are interested to see further reasons the subsidy should be removed,” they said. (NAN)

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