…Threatens To Shut Down Country
The Nigeria Civil Service Union(NCSU) has vehemently opposed the proposed payment of five percent fuel tax by Nigerians with effect from January, 2026, describing the directive issued by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to that effect as wicked, inhuman, callous and anti-people.
This is even as the union has threatened to shut down the country, by joining the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) and other industrial unions to mobilise workers and other Nigerians to protest against the fuel tax proposal.
The Rivers State Chairman of NCSU, Comrade Chukwuka Richman Osumah, who gave this indication while speaking in an interview in Port Harcourt, said the union has rejected the proposed tax regime because the decision by President Tinubu and the Federal Government to impose the five percent fuel tax on Nigerians would further suffocate the populace and compound their economic woes, as the policy is inconsistent with the government’s avowal to the protection, defence and improvement of the wellbeing and welfare needs of the citizenry at all times.
He noted that the policy if implemented, would further strangulate the Nigerian workers in particular, saying, they have hardly recovered from the pains inflicted upon them by the Federal Government following the removal of fuel subsidy and other asyphxiating economic policies of the present government, with their concomitant inflationary repercussions and hardship.
Osumah said should the proposed tax policy of the Tinubu administration see the light of day, without considering its far-reaching negative socioeconomic implications on civil servants in the country, the NCSU in Rivers State would in conjunction with its national headquarters literally shut down the country.
While describing the proposed fuel tax policy as wicked, callous, inhuman and anti-people, the labour leader called on all people of goodwill to prevail on the Federal Government to jettison the idea, saying, it is contrary to the expectations of Nigerians that the Tinubu administration would bring the dividends of democracy to their doorsteps.
Meanwhile, the NCSU has also condemned the drastic reduction in the payment of the existing 40 percent peculiar allowance to federal civil servants by the Federal Government since 2023 despite the N70,000 new minimum wage.
It was revealed that there has been a cut in the payment of the 40 percent peculiar allowance to the workers in spite of the N70,000 new minimum wage, whereas it is supposed to have been reviewed upward to reflect the current N70,000 minimum wage, which took effect since July 2024.
Osumah urged the Federal Government to do the needful by addressing the issue to reflect the current realities.
According to him, even when the government has failed to deliver on this crucial entitlement of its workers, it is unbelievable that it is tinkering with the idea of imposing another financial burden on the citizenry through the so-called fuel tax. Osumah further noted that the biting inflation in the country has already made nonsense of the N70,000 minimum wage, and wondered why the Federal Government would at this time be contemplating inflicting more pains and hardship on the workforce through the fuel tax, and called on President Tinubu to drop the idea completely.
