VANGUARD
Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has dismissed the International Monetary Fund, IMF, denial of any role in Nigeria government’s removal of petrol subsidy and the implementation of other anti-people economic policies, insisting that the body is behind the country’s economic woes.
According to the NLC, the IMF and its cousin in economic mischief – the World Bank remain the twin forces that have a longstanding pattern of recommending harsh and unworkable economic policies to developing nations.
In a statement yesterday, the President of NLC, Joel Ajaero, urged the World Bank and IMF to remove their knees from our necks so that we can breathe as a nation.
The statement reads: “Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) believes that it is cynical and indeed typical of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) to recently deny responsibility for the Nigerian government’s removal of petroleum subsidy.
“IMF and its cousin in economic mischief – the World Bank remains the twin forces that have longstanding pattern of recommending harsh and unworkable Economic policies to developing nations. In their usual subterfuge, they have continued to present these advisories as growth strategies but which have unfortunately often led to increased socioeconomic hardship and stagnation in Nigeria and other nations that have had the misfortune of drinking their poisoned chalice.
“At a press conference during the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington DC, United States, Abebe Selassie, IMF’s African Region Director, described the decision to remove fuel subsidy by Nigeria’s government as a domestic one.
“IMF’s recent statement is a display of subterfuge and evasion. This denial of involvement in Nigeria’s subsidy removal, coupled with the assertion that it was a “domestic decision,” disregards the extensive influence that the IMF wields in policy formation within many developing countries. Despite this assertion, the IMF’s policy dialogues often suggest subsidy cuts as necessary steps toward fiscal sustainability.
“For Nigeria, where successive governments have frequently yielded to these recommendations, the IMF’s disavowal rings hollow, as it underplays the fund’s direct impact on the nation’s economic policies.
“The NLC has become more worried over this denial at this time which is another signpost of the already disturbing policies by the Nigerian government at the behest of the IMF and World Bank and which IMF is now trying to distance itself.
“It shows that the institution is working very hard to stay away from the blame or the backlash that its policy directions will bring in the future. IMF must know that Nigerians are not fools and we are always aware of the destructive influences its awful policy paths for Nigeria and indeed Africa has been.
“It is pretentious and truly too late to begin to deny complicity because we warned the government about the consequences of implementing IMF and World Bank-driven policies.
As IMF and World Bank continue to pretend not to know the apparent obviousness of the social costs of its policy recommendations another layer of concern is added to the entire denial.
“While the IMF acknowledges the “significant social costs involved,” it casually suggests that governments can mitigate these hardships through its idea of expanded social protections which is a system that beggars the people forcing them to dwell on handouts in this case RICE that never gets to the people. The reality in Nigeria has continued to reveal a profound disconnect – subsidy removal and price hikes have pushed essential goods beyond the reach of many, with government-provided social safety nets remaining woefully inadequate.
“This gap between IMF recommendations and the lived experiences of Nigerians highlights a
fundamental and deliberate oversight in the fund’s approach to economic policy.
THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN VANGUARD
