By TINA TIMOTHY

The Revolutionary Socialist Movement (RSM) has said that the Trade Union Congress (TUC) President, Festus Osifo, must have realized that his decision to support removal of fuel subsidy and naira devaluation policy was wrong as Nigerians are facing intense hardship as the policy “wreaks havoc on the people”.

RSM, in a recent statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Kayode Salako, decried that the policy Osifo supported “has been hunting millions of Nigerians, collapsing thousands of small businesses, and causing a surge inflation of goods and services.”

“The TUC President, Festus Osifo, must have realized how wrong he was to support the removal of subsidy and Naira devaluation policy (according to Vanguard Newspaper, June 16 2023). The policy he supported has been hunting millions of Nigerians, collapsing thousands of small businesses, and causing a surge inflation of goods and services. We believe this is an opportunity to show remorse and re-commitment towards fighting, side by side with the working people, against policies that will further wreak havoc on the masses of the people,” the statement, a copy of which was made available to News Express, reads in part.

RSM further urged Osifo and the TUC to join hands with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to “demand for a living minimum wage of at least N200,000, link the struggle to the return of a well-monitored subsidy scheme on the PMS, reversal of all hiked fees at public tertiary institutions, renationalization of the power and petroleum sector and so on.”

The statement continues: ”To us in the Revolutionary Socialist Movement, the leadership of the Labour movement must provide clear demands and lead the people to achieve those demands. We propose that the NLC and TUC should, together with the demand for a living minimum wage of at least N200,000, link the struggle to the return of a well-monitored subsidy scheme on the PMS, reversal of all hiked fees at public tertiary institutions, renationalization of the power and petroleum sector and so on.”

The group further stated that a socialist government would benefit all and bring about genuine development of the society as against the “thieving, backward, capitalist ruling elite” and subsequently urged the labour leaders to do all within its power to wrestle power from the later.

“All of these events are clear indications that the Labour Movement needs to initiate the building of a genuine mass working people’s political party or reclaim the existing Labour Party with a revolutionary programme and method to wrestle power from the thieving elite, backward capitalist ruling elite and establish a workers and poor people’s government armed with socialist programmes. Such a socialist government will ensure the human and material resources of the country are used on the basis of socialist planning for the benefit of all and the genuine development of the society,” RSM said.