By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The recent increment in transportation fares as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy announced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during his inauguration last Monday, May 29, 1923, has resulted in some Nigerians resorting to using traditional means of transportation to get to their destinations.
One of such Nigerians is an unnamed student of University of Maiduguri who arrived at campus on his donkey to attend lectures.
Many undergraduates of the Maiduguri based university were surprised but at the same time amused when they saw the student riding on a donkey into the school campus.
He told his colleagues that his inability to afford the rising transport fares occasioned by the fuel subsidy removal led him to take the decision of riding donkey to the campus.
Following fuel subsidy removal, the leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) threatened to go on strike on Wednesday.
The union at its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja, the nation’s capital, on Friday, June 2, 2023, directed its affiliates, including state councils and industrial unions, to mobilise workers for a nationwide strike and protest if nothing was done by the Federal Government to embrace the status quo as far the price of petrol was concerned.
The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, while speaking on the planed nationwide strike during an interview with newsmen after the meeting, said, “The NEC in session directed that the leadership of NLC should be cautious of negotiations with people without portfolios.
“It is destructive and until the government is properly constructed and the people who will negotiate with labour are people with mandate and capacity to convince the government of the day, such negotiations may not be valid wherever.
“Consequently, the NLC decided that if by Wednesday next week, the NNPCL, a private limited liability company that illegally announced a price regime in the oil sector, refuses to reverse, the NLC and all its affiliates will withdraw their services and commence protest nationwide until this is complied with. The NLC NEC directs all state councils and industrial unions to commence mobilisation from this moment,” Ajaero said.
