Trade Union tells Federal Government to be wary of IMF

The Trade Union Congress has told the Federal Government to be wary of the International Monetary Fund, whose Managing Director, Mrs. Christine Lagarde, is on a four-day working visit to Nigeria.

The President and the Secretary General of TUC, Messrs Bala Kaigama and Musa Lawal respectively, said, in a statement on Tuesday, that the warning became necessary in view of the bitter experiences Nigerians had suffered under the terms of the IMF in the past.

He said the country was already in a precarious situation and would not be able to cope with the harsh conditions attached to IMF credit facilities.

The labour leaders wondered why those in charge of the leadership of the country could not address the challenges facing the country without foreign intervention.

Kaigama and Lawal said the suggestions from the IMF and related bodies had always resulted in more suffering and the impoverishment of the citizenry.

The TUC added, “This warning is informed by our past bitter experience with the financial body. Our country is already in a dire strait and cannot cope with the IMF’s characteristic shylock conditions attached to its credit facilities, and must not accept same if that is what the visit is about.

“For the umpteenth time, we wonder aloud: Can’t we solve our challenges as a nation without foreign intervention? Must the Brettonwood institutions be the ones to always determine and tell us when our economy is doing well and when to devalue the naira?

“Why must they suggest to us how our economy can be fixed, whereas their recipe has consistently tended to end up impoverishing more Nigerians than ever before?

“Why has it become so difficult to produce good and quality rice and other local products for domestic and export needs? Since when did it become rocket science for our once functional refineries to produce at more than 30 per cent of installed capacity and make petroleum products available?”

The TUC leaders expressed concern that Lagarde might exploit the opportunity of her visit to attempt to sell IMF theories that would aggravate the country’s economic situation in the country.

They noted that while the TUC was not opposed to mutually beneficial relationship with the IMF and any other body, the union expressed its readiness to “fight any agenda inimical to the economic and other interests of the Nigerian masses.”


Credit: Punch