Following the Mass Protests scheduled to be staged in the country next week, the Federation of Informal Workers’ Organisation of Nigeria (FIWON) has publicly declared total support for labor and civil society organizations, to alleviate the economic meltdown, and suffering experienced by the citizens.
According to the statement titled; End Hunger, End Suffering Now! the government has no plan to make local refineries work while available dollars are used to import fuel. The situation compels a foreign exchange crisis resulting in the three fall in the value of the naira.
In a statement released to Heritage Echo News and signed by the General Secretary Mr. Gbenga Komolafe and President Frances Onokpe respectively stated the following:
•The government should repair all local refineries within the next 6 months
•Reversal of the fuel pump price to pre-29 May prices
•Stop and reverse the free fall of the naira with immediate effect: the free market floating of the naira has benefited only a few rich people with dollars while making goods and services more expensive for poor people.
•Halt the restriction of movement of food items from the North to the South: It worsens food scarcity in the South and makes it impossible for farmers in the North to sell their produce and gain revenue to buy other essentials apart from food.
•Nothing for us without us: Social safety nets targeting workers in the informal economy must be disbursed through organizations of the working people themselves to avoid a few government officials stealing palliative measures designed to help the working poor and vulnerable Nigerians.
•Provision of free and quality education as a right. Education should not be a commodity to make money.
•Universal access to quality public health services: the health insurance schemes are not working in the informal sector because of irregular income to pay.
•Tax the rich and reduce the large amounts paid to public officers: To stop hunger and fund social services, government officials’ current pay should be reduced by 50% while super-rich people should be made to pay more tax to free resources to take care of social services.
•Stop demolition of public spaces and work clusters where informal people work, without providing affordable alternatives.
“Working people in the informal sector; traders, artisans, technicians, small business owners, women working from home and on the streets, waste workers, and young people who have no jobs after graduating from school, have been the worst victims of the policies of the government, particularly since the Covid-19 period in 2020. The lockdowns resulted in terrible hunger, suffering, and death while palliatives were diverted to politicians’ homes; the cashless policy imposed on Nigerians in 2023 also destroyed many small businesses and livelihoods”.
Now, the policy of increasing the price of fuel by more than 300% combined with the policy of floating the naira exchange value against foreign currencies resulting in gross devaluation of the naira has also resulted in food famine while the cost of other essentials like transportation, health care, drugs, building materials have more than trebled in less than one year. Public and private schools have increased fees steeply while drugs are becoming unaffordable for the sick.
Nobody knows how the trillions of naira shared with governors and the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry to assist poor working people and the vulnerable have been spent.
The Federation of Informal Workers’Organisation of Nigeria (FIWON) will therefore join other civil society organizations to protest commencing next week.
