Adams Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo, says the federal government has a plan to cushion the effect of petrol subsidy removal on Nigerians.
On Sunday, a federal government delegation which included Oshiomhole, held a meeting with representatives of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the presidential villa, in Abuja.
Festus Osifo, TUC president, who spoke after the meeting, confirmed that a list of demands had been submitted to the federal government, adding that the union will continue with the dialogue on Tuesday.
Dele Alake, spokesperson for the government’s delegation, said the demands of the union to cushion the effect of subsidy removal, include an increase in the minimum wage and tax holidays for certain categories of people.
On his part, Oshiomole, who spoke in an interview after the meeting, said: “This president recognises that the effect of the withdrawal is already here, people are already going through some level of discomfort and therefore there has to be an immediate solution to it”.
“Now that immediate solution is what we discussed and the fact that we are meeting on Tuesday again shows that clearly, we realise that this is not one of those things you want to buy time because it has a real negative impact, on particularly, the most vulnerable group.
“But we have a solution to it because you are going to make savings, so take from that savings or even if it is borrowing. So, whatever it is, you can leverage some revenue and improve wages to cushion the cost of living. I think it is legitimate, I think it is doable, it is not something that you want to spend two to three months negotiating.
“Because those savings will go into the federation account which will be distributed among the three tiers of government and so every tier of government will have more money and should be able to meet the consequential wage increase,” he added.