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Chuks Okocha in Abuja

President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero has warned Mr. Peter Obi and any other aspirant for the Presidency under the Labour Party (LP) that the labour unions would disown them if they adopt policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank if elected Nigeria’s President.

Ajaero spoke yesterday, during an interview on Channels television.

Ajaero, said the position of the Labour movement  on the removal of petrol subsidy and electricity subsidy was fixed.

He stressed that the Labour movement would have it rough with any president elected on the platform of the Labour party who implements policies of the Bretton Woods institutions.

According to Ajaero “He (Obi) is the presidential candidate of the Labour Party but does he own the NLC or the LP? Why can’t you separate them?

“Whosoever is the presidential candidate or official of the LP must buy into our projects. If he says he was going to undertake those policies, let him be elected and try such policies.

“Whether a presidential candidate of a party that Labour forms would dictate for Labour? The answer is known to everybody. The policies of Labour, the ideologies of Labour are clear and we are going to pursue it.

“If anybody is coming with another ideology, he is going to have it tough with us because that is not what we stand for.

“It (our approach) would have been the worst for anybody flying the flag of the LP to come and implement these policies, to come and adopt the policies of the IMF and the World Bank.”

Speaking further, he said: “It would have been worse for the person. In fact, we would disown the person, he would be on his own. We have to make this distinction clear.”

Speaking on the issue of electricity tariff hike and inflation, Ajaero said the recent increase by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and distribution companies in the country must be immediately reversed.

He explained, “Unknown to people, this issue of tariff increase is determined by inflation and the value of the currency.

“NERC takes these two major variables to determine tariff increase. Unknown to the same NERC, each time you increase tariff, it leads to another inflation which within few months, they would see demand for another tariff increase. And this is happening on and on and there is no control over it.”

The increase saw the customers paying N225 kilowatt per hour from the current N66, a development that has been met with criticism by many Nigerians.

The NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) subsequently picketed NERC offices and discos on Monday to press home their demands.

But, Ajaero kicked against the “politics of reduction” embarked upon by NERC in recent times.

Ajaero stressed that the reduction after tariff increase won’t stand, insisting that NERC and the power Distribution Companies must first reverse the tariff to the old rates and come to the negotiation table with labour unions and other stakeholders on an agreeable way forward.