President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday night appealed to organized labour unions to give him more time to look into their grievances over the recent removal of petrol subsidy, rather than embark on protests as they have threatened.
This was shortly after the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) met with a Federal Government negotiation team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, insisted on a seven-day ultimatum to government or they will mobilise their members to storm the streets across the country.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, disclosed the President’s position after a closed-door meeting between his delegation of House leadership and Tinubu at the State House. Abuja.
Abass said the House leadership actually came to brief Tinubu on the outcome of the lawmakers’ engagement with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), which has declared a nationwide strike action.
Abbas told state House correspondents that the President made the plea for more time since he is new in office, and will need time to evaluate the issues that are being raised by workers.
The Speaker said: “What he said is that he’s just coming on board. We should ask them and beg them to please give him a little more time. The things that they mentioned, he is completely unaware of them, he is yet to be briefed about all those issues.
“But from what he heard from me, also advised that we should channel of those issues to the Chief of Staff to look at them one after the other.
“I believe the next coming days, some concerted actions will be taken.”
He said the House leadership invited NARD following their intention to go on strike, saying that the lawmakers succeeded in persuading the union to shelve the plan.
“Sequel to the meeting we had with them, there were series of conditions that they gave, that we felt we need to share with the president,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NLC and TUC after a negotiation meeting with the Federal Government insisted on going ahead with their planned protests if their demands are not met.
The meeting was attended by Labour delegations led by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero and his TUC counterpart, Festus Osifo.
Ajaero said: “We met based on N520 (per liter of petrol price) increase and the committee that was set based on that that and we agreed to to work to realize the objectives that was set during that meeting.
“The two centers have made their position known and is before Nigerians, the TUC, the NLC, our position is known. And it’s public knowledge.
“We are going ahead with the protest because we have to be emphatic on what we put in our communique, to say we’re commencing protests from the 2nd (of August).
“There is N520 increment, which gave birth to this meeting. Nobody is discussing about N617 as at now and this meeting didn’t have the competence to address that. Is that clear? There are two issues, does that make sense?”
Also concerning the meeting, Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Ms. Olu Verheijeh, explained that the steering committee meeting focused on how stakeholders can fast track interventions that will bring relief, particularly around Compressed Natural Gas CNG, mass transportation, cleaner energy, transportation, and reduce the impact of the cost of transportation.
“We are making progress, we’re trying to address the issues that will prevent a strike. So that is essentially and that’s why I feel like we made very good progress today and will continue to do so.
“We have to get it right. It’s important that we do this well, and we keep our promises. So it’s important that whatever is announced actually gets done. Because we don’t want to make big announcements that will continue to lose people’s trust”, she said.
