The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), yesterday shunned the meeting with the Federal Government and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) over its planned nationwide warning strike on Tuesday.
The meeting, which was convened by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong, was aimed at averting the two-day warning strike already declared by the Congress.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that only the leadership of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) led by its President, Festus Osifo, showed up for the meeting scheduled for 3:00pm but commenced at exactly 5:32pm.
Briefing Journalists after the meeting with the leadership of the TUC, Lalong disclosed that the TUC had agreed to shelve the strike to give the government more time to address the workers demands.
He said some of the demands such as the issues of wage award, the implementation of the palliative to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal and the the NUTRW crises as well as the issue of 70 billion proposed funding for SMEs required immediate attention while others would be addressed in the long run.
“There are so many hanging issues that we have already discussed with Mr president which we are going to carry over from here. Within the period of about two weeks we will discuss those issues and bring them back for further discussions.
“Among those issues that we discussed, there are some that are very urgent. There are others that will require a long span of time and this was the basis of our discussions and we all agreed that there would be no strike between this period and the two weeks time while we are doing our deliberations and also working towards realizing some of these objectives.“
Meanwhile, TUC President Fustus Osifo said that the Congress had reasoned that the government needed at least two weeks to sit on the matter and come up with a solution, considering that the President was out of the country as at the moment.
He further not noted that the N2 billion earmarked for palliative in states was too small, while demanding the government set up a task force to monitor it’s implementation at the federal level.
Osifo said the TUC would on its part, mobilise a monitoring team across the 36 States of the federation to monitor the distribution of the palliative.
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He promised to get back to the Congress’ National Administrative Council (NAC) to inform them of the fall out of the meeting with the federal government.
Meanwhile, the United Action Front of Civil Societies has called on private and public sector operators to support the two-day warning strike called by the NLC.
The strike scheduled to begin on Tuesday is to protest against the hardship posed by the fuel subsidy removal.
The group, in a press statement signed by the Head, National Coordinating Centre, United Action Front of Civil Society, Wale Okunniyi, noted that the fuel subsidy removal had imposed severe hardship on the people and asked workers to team up with NLC in demanding for the reversal of the policies of fuel subsidy removal and hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
It lamented that though the federal government has commenced disbursement of palliative funds to state governors, it is silent on the review of the minimum wage it promised to Nigerians to alleviate the hardship meted by the fuel subsidy removal.
The statement reads in part, ‘The United Action Front of Civil Society declares total support for the two-day warning strike declared by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in protest against the untold hardship in the country foisted by the President Bola Tinubu administration through its unilateral and phoney removal of fuel subsidy as well as its concomitant arbitrary hike in the price of premium motor spirit (PMS).
‘The warning strike which is slated to begin on Tuesday, September 5, has become highly inevitable, in the light of the emerging realities, which have clearly shown that government is being deceptive and mercurial with its fuel subsidy removal regime, which has been characterised by flip flopping and uncertainty.
‘The leadership of the organised civil society therefore wishes to unequivocally decry these mindless policies of the federal government, which have further pushed millions of households that were hitherto managing to cope with their meagre incomes, below poverty line, therefore compelling our patriotic call on Nigerians in the public and private sectors to team up with the NLC in demanding the reversal of the asphyxiating policies being implemented unilaterally without justification or any concrete economic plan beyond making Nigerians to pay for the corrupt mismanagement of the subsidy scheme, which incidentally has been admitted by government itself.’
The group maintained that the palliative being financed by the government through a World Bank loan that will be repaid with a high interest rate will further push Nigerians into deeper poverty and urged the Tinubu-led administration to demand accountability from those mismanaging fuel importation regime and depleted Nigeria’s Foreign Reserve to an abysmal level.
The statement further said, ‘We also wish to reiterate that the so-called palliatives for the fuel subsidy removal being financed through a world bank loan to be paid back with interest by the Nigerian people, is another device by the ruling class to further fleece the already pauperised masses of the country in continuation of the culture of profligacy through which the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration plunged Nigeria into debt being serviced by over 90 per cent of the nation’s revenue.
Rather than further push Nigeria deeper into bankruptcy, considering the fact that our foreign reserve is currently below $4 billion, which marks the worse downturn in the history of the country’s economy, the Tinubu regime should be demanding accountability from those who mismanaged the fuel importation regime and depleted Nigeria’s Foreign Reserve to an abysmal level.’
The group alleged that those who misappropriate the national treasury in the name of fuel subsidy removal are working on the street freely.