The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) has called on President Bola Tinubu to put in place palliatives for workers to cushion the effect of his subsidy removal.

NILDS director-general Abubakar Suleiman said this when he received a team from Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, led by its director-general, Issa Aremu, in Abuja.

“In spite of the fact that it is necessary to have subsidy removed, I pity Nigerian labour who are going to be the major casualty of such necessity. There is nothing anybody can do about it,” stated the NILDS boss. “There is a need to remove subsidy. With time to come, Nigerians will adjust to it. It may be very difficult, maybe a very painful decision that the government needs to make.”

Mr Suleiman explained that “we have a collective responsibility to see that the effect of the removal does not dampen the morale of the Nigerian labour.”

“I think it is very important,” he stressed.

The NILDS director-general added, “I want to use this opportunity to advise the new government under President Bola Tinubu to come up with a palliative to cushion the effects.”

Mr Aremu urged organised labour and trade unions to embrace dialogue with the government, pointing out that “we have a policy pronouncement on fuel subsidy, in all honesty, we know there is a consensus that it cannot be business as usual, maybe the challenge might be how we midwife it.”

He said further, “The way to manage it is through social dialogue. Let me use this opportunity to call on my colleagues in the trade union movement and organised labour, who predictably have responded because their mandate is to defend workers’ welfare.”

The labour chief stressed that at the end of the day, “what will resolve this problem is dialogue, and our institute is available to encourage and facilitate that process.” 

(NAN)