The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has accused President Bola Tinubu of plunging Nigerians into more hardship with his economic policies that “reward” the rich since he assumed office.

In a statement on Tuesday, the NLC president, Joe Ajaero, criticised Mr Tinubu’s administration over the proposed N8,000 monthly cash palliative for the poorest Nigerian households.

Mr Ajaero described the proposed N8,000 palliative expected for poor households as an insult and mockery to Nigerians.

“N8,000 to each of the so-called 12 million poorest Nigerian households for a period of six months insults our collective intelligence and makes a mockery of our patience and abiding faith in social dialogue, which the government may have alluded to albeit pretentiously,” he said.

Mr Tinubu, in a letter addressed to the House of Representatives, sought $800 million in loans to provide N8,000 (approximately $10) per home registered in the federal government’s National Social Register (NSR) as palliatives for fuel subsidy removal.

The NLC chair also lampooned the federal government over its attempt to pay the sum of N70 billion to National Assembly members, calling it the most “insensitive, reckless and brazen diversion” of public funds.

“It is unconscionable that a government that has foisted so much hardship on the people within nearly two months of coming into office will make a proposal that clearly rewards the rich in public office to the detriment of the poor. 

“What this means all this while is that the government is seeking ways of robbing the very poor Nigerians so that the rich can become richer,” stated the NLC chair.

Meanwhile, a separate statement by the Nigerian Union of Journalists NUJ criticised the recent pump price hike of petrol to N617 per litre in Abuja and N568 in Lagos, respectively.

The statement by NUJ national secretary, Shuaibu Leman, said the development had triggered astronomical increases in transportation costs, with prices of food items.

The union said that while it applauded the subsidy removal, it had cautioned about the hasty implementation of the policy without providing alternatives to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal.

“While we applaud the decision to remove the costly subsidies on fuel, however, we had cautioned against a hasty implementation of the policy without putting mitigating measures in place to cushion the excruciating effects.

“We are saddened by the fact that today most people can hardly commute to work or other places of business without too much stress because the embarrassing sudden surge in petrol prices has made it so,” the group said.