The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has attributed the pervasive economic hardship being experienced by Nigerians to the volatility in the forex market, urging the Federal Government to take decisive measures to strengthen the naira to between N900 and N1,000 to the United States (US) dollar.
The union argued that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has the prerogative to strengthen the naira as a means of providing succour to Nigerians, through food and commodity prices reduction.
TUC President-General, Comrade Festus Osifo, shared these views in Abuja on Tuesday while speaking to reporters on the State of the Nation, especially on inflationary trend, insecurity and other issues affecting workers.
Osifo lamented that the Nigerian currency was grossly undervalued against the American greenback at N1,380, and had not yet delivered corresponding relief to Nigerians at the microeconomic level.
According to him, “Today, the dollar to naira has stabilised around N1,380. But the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria still feels that this is still relatively high. We still believe that our naira is still undervalued.”
The labour leader maintained that the fair value of the naira, based on purchasing power considerations and assessments by international and domestic economic institutions, could be around N900 to N1,000 to the dollar.
His words, “We strongly believe that the fair value of our naira, as explained by all agencies, as explained by all economic think tanks, including the World Bank and IMF, including the government of CBN, we know that the fair value of our naira using purchasing power parity could be somewhere around N900, maximum N1,000 to a dollar.”
The TUC President-General said even though inflation and the exchange rate had relatively stabilised, workers, traders and other Nigerians are not feeling the impact in terms of prices of goods and services they are made to grapple with daily.
“The macroeconomy is known to the economists. It is known to the bourgeois. But for the talakawas, for the workers, for the traders, all they relate with are the issues that are bordering on the microeconomy,” he pointed out.
He further argued that the continued weakness of the naira was one of the major factors preventing the stabilisation of the macroeconomy from translating into lower prices in the markets.
Osifo said virtually every aspect of production and consumption had a dollar component, including imported goods, fertiliser and other agricultural inputs, meaning that currency depreciation ultimately feeds into the prices paid by consumers.
According to him, “The value of everything reflects devaluation, most especially if they are imported goods.”
The labour leader also wondered why some members of the political class are against the creation of state policing system, insisting that the time was ripe to institutionalise it.
He reiterated that Nigeria was at war, hence the reason why state police should be on the front burner for government that truly cares about the welfare of citizens.
According to him, some politicians are urging the Federal Government not to fast track state police until after the 2027 general elections, because of fears that some governors might hijack it for selfish reasons.
Osifo urged the executive to lobby the legislature if it appears there are challenges bedevilling its creation.
“Insecurity is still here. If you remember at all, we have been advocating for state police. Today, the conversation is ripe, and we learned that there is a deal with the National Assembly today talking about state police.
“But all we are telling government is that let it not drag. We’re also hearing that because of the election that is coming, that there are some groups that are actually saying, oh, government, don’t fast-track the issue of state police.
We’ve asked them, why don’t we want state police to be fasttracked? All we have heard over time is that politicians are going to use it against themselves.
“The question we have asked is that these politicians, what are their numbers? When you add all the Nigerian politicians together, they are less than 0.1% of Nigerian population. So how can we, because of less than 0.1% of Nigerian population, we allow 99.99% to suffer? That is not logical. Government must do things that will impact the larger number of people.
“You must do good looking at the larger number of people that is going to be impacted. So for us, we think that state police is ripe. We think that the time to implement state police is now.
“We know that this government, with their relationship with the National Assembly, we know that there is no bill that they want to pass that they will not pass within 48 hours. We know that they have what it takes because the National Assembly is made up of APC. The government at the centre is also APC.
“In every part of the world, when the legislative arm has majority and the party at the centre also reflect that party that have majority at the legislature, things to go as smooth as possible. And we know it has been demonstrated since 2023. And even when Buhari was there, that if this government or if the APC government want to get things done in the National Assembly, they have what it takes to get it done.
“So we are calling on the government not to relent, not to listen to the people who are making those advocacy that the state police will be used against, politicians will use it against themselves. We don’t care much about that. What we care about is what will protect over 99% of Nigerians.
“And that is why we are advocating that government should fast track the bill in the National Assembly. Send same bill to the state to get 24 states to also support the bill in their majority so that the state police will become established. People have asked about funding of those state police.
“What we have asked is Nigeria is in a state of war today. When a nation is not secure, you cannot start talking about building of hospitals, building of roads. Today in Ukraine, nobody in Ukraine is even talking about how many hospitals are you going to build? Because they are in a state of emergency.
“All they want today is security. And this must be treated like that. Beyond state police at all, government must deploy technology.
“We’ve talked about this over and over again, and we will not get tired talking about it because we are talking about lives of Nigerians. Government must do everything within its means to deploy the right technology and deploy the right equipment in order to be able to curb these issues that are bothering on insecurity in Nigeria,” he said.
