 Many thanks for staying with us this morning on the breakfast. The second conversation for us is that there's an accusation made by the APC against the NLC of hypocrisy of a fuel subsidy removal. We have a guest joining the conversation this morning, Onika Christopher, his assistant general secretary NLC Yaba. Christopher, it's good to have you join us. Thank you for having me. It's good to be here once again. So quickly a bit of a background to the conversation. The all-progressive Congress APC presidential campaign council has accused the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress, that's the NLC, of being hypocritical over the burning issues of fuel subsidy removal in the country. The council director, median public affairs, Mr. Festus Kiyamo, in a statement so faulted the leadership of the NLC for promising to mobilize its members across the 774 local government areas in Nigeria to ensure victory for the Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Pete Orby, in the next year's presidential election. Now justifying the council's position, Kiyamo raised several questions about the stance of the NLC and he noted that before adopting Mr. Pete Orby as a candidate. Did the leadership of the NLC have a conversation with him on the removal of fuel subsidy? If there did have the conversation, did Mr. Pete Orby agree to back down on the issue of subsidy removal? What was the basis for supporting him? Did the organized Labour agree with him if he did not back down on the issue? If no such discussion or conversation is held, does it mean that the leadership of the NLC now fully supports the removal of fuel subsidy? Or will that not be reckless of the NLC to adopt a candidate without thoroughly interrogating the candidate on his policies as they affect the Nigerian workers or in the masses? The NLC must make a public statement and come clean. Onyeka Christopher, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. It's good to be here. Well, yes, so you probably have to respond to that. Yes, we're getting to that point. And so listening to, you know, the thoughts, I'm sure that you've probably seen or read and heard of this before now. What would you say that the position of the NLC is on fuel subsidy removal or subsidy removal? However, you want to look at it. Thank you. At this time, it is important that we, anybody that understands the trade union movement in Nigeria, and especially the Nigeria Labour Congress, over the years, in fact, you're talking about decades, our position has remained unchanged on fuel subsidy issue. Our position is that for you to remove fuel subsidy, there are certain processes, there are certain milestones that must have to be met. So our position has not changed. Our position has rather been amplified or deepened. Our position has been given a voice, a further voice, by what the candidate of the Labour Party for 2023 presidential election has said, that there is no disagreement between the position of PTOB and the position of the trade union movement. We believe that it is rather a positive of understanding of the position of the NLC on fuel subsidy that made Teyamu, for Christ's sake, Teyamu was part of the struggle. He was in the civil society, though he stopped of the Labour movement. But he was part of the process that crafted the position of the trade union movement. He should know better. But for the fact that he had decided not to know. So then that becomes his problem. I think that he is actually not worried about probably the pretended contradiction in our positions. He's only worried about the fact that the Nigeria trade union movement are going to mobilize all over the several and 74 local governments in Nigeria to ensure that our candidates, especially the presidential candidate PTOB wins the next election. I think he's the fear. He cried out in fear without understanding the fact that this position has been our position all this while. You cannot remove fuel subsidy based on imported products. You can only remove fuel subsidy when the refineries are working. And our position has been clear. Let the refineries work. Let the local refineries work. The issue of subsidy would die. And that is very simple. And that is what our candidate has said. He has said that what we do with the issue of subsidy, he has said we are going to move the nation from consumption to production. And then what he said is that we are going to do what? Repair the refineries. And what the refineries are working for Christ's sake? The issue of subsidy dies because you no longer have an issue, you know, important wealth. Because the so-called subsidy claims, which is very, very fraudulent, which this party, APC, in 2014 told the whole Nigerians that it's a fraud, that it's a scam. Instead, when they came on, they started enjoying the scam, the fraud. And so one is surprised who is hypocritic. We think that Kayamo and the APC are the main hypocrites. They are so hypocritical that Nigerians are suffering over what they have found for subsidy. You could see that they have removed under this regime, they have removed for subsidy almost like four times. What are they removing? You ask yourself, you told us in the first time that you are removing subsidy. You removed it later. You came again to tell us you are removing subsidy. Does this subsidy, is it a cat with nine lives? Is it a cat with nine lives that cannot be removed once and for all? So they have kept on removing for subsidy. And in any case, the understanding of removal of for subsidy is price hike, which is very, very wrong. And we have made it clear, our position has not changed. It has remained the same over the years. We are not fit to consider and somewhere superficially crafts out a position. These positions are where taught by the organs of the labour movement, jointly with the TUs. Our positions are very, very clear on this and they are very, very deep. So what the candidate has done is to give voice to what we have said all this, all this why. Let our refinance work. As soon as our refinance works, the issue of first subsidy will be taken care of once and for all. They don't want it to be taken care of. That is why some of them are crying. That is why they have their money. Repair the refinance and first subsidy scam will stop. And that is our position. So we tell Kayama to please go back to history. To still go back to all the conferences and meetings we have all had, which he also participated in. And tell Nigeria what our position is. It has not changed. It has the same thing. God bless you. Okay. So what's your having this conversation? I mean, because of some of the questions that Festus Kayama has raised, and over time we're understanding like you have rightly mentioned the position of the NLC. As regards subsidy removal, you have never been in support. So with the NLC throwing their support and saying, hey, we're going to support, you know, the candidate of the Liberal Party, that's Pitalbi. Are you saying that the NLC has, you have had a conversation with the presidential candidate, and you are saying that you are in support of removal of subsidy based on Okay, if you listen to my No, are you saying that there's a certain condition? I want us to, you know, have this clarity. Yes. We have had this conversation. In fact, before he was adopted as a candidate of the Liberal Party, we had conversations. We do not bring people from the moon. There is a chapter of demand. Okay, by NLC and TUC that has already been mainstreamed, that has already been kind of added into the Liberal Party chapter. And so the in those chapter of demand, we have asked certain things. There are certain milestones. Look, this thing is in public space. All the CAs, it has been in public space. I wonder why Kayamo is crying. I've told you why he's crying. So we had that discussion with recently last week, we had the same conversation at the Liberal Party National Retreat that took place in Amboja. I was there. A lot of people were there. TUC, NLC, civil society organizations who were there. And we, this chapter of demand of the trade union movement was also read once again for the benefit of those who did not understand it. Let me reiterate what constitutes that chapter of demand. All the trade unions in Nigeria, with NLC having 40 something unions, TUC having 20 something unions, all of them came together. Each of these unions crafted their own chapter of demands and they brought them together and it was articulated into one particular document and was mainstreamed into the Liberal Party. That is so, you find that these are well-total documents that represent all Nigerian workers and all Nigerian people from all facets of life, including you, my sister, it captures your own intentions concerning the place of the issue and all the issues that bothers us as common people in Nigeria. And so Peter Obi, like I said, was speaking in our minds. It has not changed. Nothing has changed at all, at all, at all. That is our position. So was there a time frame that was given as to when, I mean Paraventure, he becomes, this is a conversation, very honest conversations that should be had or should be had. And the one should have a different, you know, point. So was there a time frame that was given as regards when subsidy will be removed entirely? Because if you talk about having the refineries refining the product, I mean, this would not just be a thing that happens in one day. I'm sure there's a lot of issues that need to be sorted out. So was that really a time frame that was given Paraventure, he becomes president? My sister, one thing I can assure you is that Nigerian workers and Nigerian people are represented in this government. It's an inclusive government. That is the truth. Because we are part of the process. We are part of the people that would drive all of this. And then to tell you whether it's 10 days, 20 days is, for me, it's not something that we could we could decide now. But let me tell you one thing. The APC government has told us that the refineries, the protocol refineries will come on stream by 2023. I hope you are aware of that. Now, I am conversant with issues in the petroleum industry. And that is a truth. I have engaged several in many ways. To repair a refinery is not rocket science. To get a refinery to come on stream is not right. In fact, to build a modular refinery from scratch is not rocket science. And so those refineries will be repaired if the political will is there. If you remove greed and corruption, you repair the refineries in months. That is the truth. It is corruption. You know, it is the fraud that is in the system that is preventing the refineries from being repaired. That is a truth. I will also tell you another story. In 2015, early 2015, some people called me to a meeting somewhere in a hotel, you know, Europeans, and some civil society persons, you know, called me 15 of them, interviewing me sitting on one side on the issue of petroleum subsidy and what was going to happen. And I explained to them the race issue of the refineries that the refineries was moribund. And I said the refineries are not moribund. And that is a truth. Some people want to cash cash out on the refineries. They want to sell it to themselves. And so some of these issues. So I told them that you cannot remove petroleum subsidy in the way you're talking about. Let's repair the refineries. If we repair the refineries, subsidy with that naturally, that is a truth. And there's no two ways about it. And so if you talk about when the timeline, I will tell you that what is going to take to repair the refineries, since the refineries is going to come on stream next year, as promised by APC, which we know is not going to happen as usual because corrosion and the, and the fraud in the system has not been dealt with. I assure you that as soon as our candidate Mr. Pito, it takes over, you know, governance in May 29, 2023, one of the priority areas will be to start refining the products locally to get the refineries working. And like I told you, it is not okay science. Okay, just, just before we go, what's the position of the NLC on time? We're talking about turnaround maintenance that's been going on. Some people say that, you know, is a front. But what's the position of the NLC? It's a fraud. It's a, we have a question is holistic. Panaramb maintenance that they have impact on is redoed with fraud. It's part of the system of corruption that is going on. And so when we, when they say that, how, I mean, you need to remove the corruption in the turnaround maintenance, turnaround maintenance could be carried out quickly. That's what I'm saying. Faster. And the money is, there will be value for money. If 10 billion Naira, for example, is invested, Nigeria's will get 10 billion Naira to repair, to repair the refineries. Not when 10 billion dollars is Naira is giving out, then somebody does something for 100 million. And then the other 9.7 billion goes into private pockets to fund the elections and to fund some of the activities. So what we are saying is that we are bringing in integrity. The Labour Party is bringing in 50% of the workers that we have to go down. I mean, you know that the campaigns would definitely start on the 28th of September 2022. And so it will be important for us to hold on up until that time before we begin to talk about the campaigns. Thank you so much, Onyeka Christopher, Assistant General Secretary of the NLC, Ryan Tien Legos. We appreciate your time and thoughts. Thank you so much. God bless you. Thank you for having me. Well, that's the size of the conversation. turnaround maintenance, the issue of the NLC, fuel subsidy removal, fastest Kiamo, and what have you. However, the NLC is saying that the position, you know, are the fuel subsidy and this removal is that when the refineries for subsidy to be removed, the refineries needs to be functional. And that's when they can fully support the removal of subsidy. Well, that's it this morning on the breakfast. It's been quite interesting for us here. Seven o'clock on material now. We'll do this tomorrow. Thank you so much for being with us. If you missed that on any part of the conversation, it will be okay to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to YouTube channel at plus TV Africa and plus TV Africa lifestyle. My name is messy a book. Oh, thanks for watching.