The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has warned that Nigeria remains highly vulnerable to global crisis, describing the country as having “no shock absorber” to cushion citizens from sudden economic crises.

He also urged the government to make public and private refineries work, saying local refining is crucial to shield Nigerians from global oil shocks.

He said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday where he shared the NLC’s response to economic shock and fuel price hikes in Nigeria.

“The current crisis between the three nations has just exposed us as a country without a shock absorber. That if there is a crisis in the global oil market today, Nigerians will feel the shock today. Prior to now, some of us believed that at least it would take about two months for us to have some reserves that we could use before—in less than one week when the crisis started, we started feeling the impact.

“In fact, the Nigeria Labour Congress has even made a proposal that even some young men in the Niger Delta refine, and that refining is not rocket science and that it should be deregulated. Rather, what we are seeing is a kind of monopoly. Unless this happens—that we get crude here and refine here for domestic consumption—we’ll be open to this level of challenge and crisis.

“Because we are saying, let there be both public and private refineries, let them work”, he stated.

Ajaero insisted that Nigeria’s refineries can be revived, pointing to the success of the Dangote Refinery as proof that local refining is possible.

“Well, you can see that Dangote Refinery is working. It’s working. And the way, as I mentioned to you now, the government is even destroying refineries by all these young men in the Niger Delta. So, refineries can work here. Even one-man refineries”, he said.

The NLC President also criticized the government’s tax policies, insisting frequent deductions on cashless transactions unfairly burden low-income earners and undermine efforts to provide meaningful tax relief.

“The question here is that even when they don’t tax you, and they are now saying all of us should go online, you know, each 10,000 you transfer, you are taxed. Every money you transfer. You know, we are not doing cash now—cashless. But check every 10,000 you transfer, and somebody is telling us that, you know, the workers earning beyond this—as if they have their own banking transaction different. If they pay you that minimum wage, you transfer to four or five of your children, you’re already taxed.

“Who came up with that policy? Is it not the CBN? If you say you will not tax me and you come out here and you tax my goods, you tax my bicycle, and we say it’s the private man that is taxing me or it’s the local government. So, what’s the mean of tax—what’s the tax relief all about?” he quizzed.

Ajaero also said that cash transfers must be transparent and community-monitored, involving local leaders to ensure the aid reaches those who truly need it.

“It should be so transparent to an extent that people who are not entirely government appointees equally monitor the system. It’s not a bad idea, even if it’s within the community. Even if it’s the community leaders—to know that 50 people from my village got so-and-so amount. And you go to another village—you should not bring it to the radio, you should not bring it to the newspapers. But if it is happening in that community, they will identify that at least 20 people have collected this money, and these 20 people are people who can’t even move from one station to the other because they don’t have transport money, or they can’t feed except for from this money. It’s easy for us to do it here.”

Speaking on wage awards, Ajaero explained they are meant as temporary relief to help workers cope with rising living costs, pointing out that many government workers have yet to receive the full 35,000 Naira award introduced two years ago.

“Well, if you watch when they initially increased the price of PMS in this country, our expenditure went up. Whatever a worker was spending jumped up; it wasn’t anticipated. So, in order to bridge it before since then, the federal government came up with this 35,000 Naira wage award. Although, as of today—two years after—in some ministries and parastatals, you know, it has still not been completed two years after.

”So, that wage award is that wage that is awarded—not part of the salary—as an interim measure to cushion the effect of some inflationary trends. That’s the essence of having a wage award. It’s not permanent, it’s not like it is the normal salary. So that’s the sense of a wage award”, he explained.

On whether the NLC has approached the government over rising costs and wage concerns, Ajaero said the union always seeks dialogue first, citing a December protest after six months of letters to the President that were never acknowledged.

“In the labour movement, people think the only approach is a strike. But the first approach is seeking an audience with the government and engaging in dialogue. If we called a strike right now, the situation would only be worsened. Our first step is usually to write a letter. We had a protest last December because we wrote to the President for six months without an acknowledgment. When we finally met him, he said he never got the letters”, he said. (AriseNews TV)