Strike: FG To Meet With NLC, TUC

– FG has invited the leadership of NLC, TUC to a meeting over the planned national strike
-NLC, TUC have asked President Buhari to reverse the recent increase of fuel price from N86 to N145
– The unions said FG should intensify the prosecution of all those involved in subsidy scams with a view to recovery and sanctioning of the culpable

Ahead of the planned national industrial strike by organized labour in Nigeria over the recent hike in pump price of petrol from N86 per litre to N145 per litre, the Federal government has called for a meeting with the leadership of both NLC and TUC. Recall that over the weekend, organised labour and the civil society gave the Federal Government till midnight on Tuesday to reverse the increase or face an indefinite national strike. But according to Punch newspaper, the general secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson said the union had received invitations via text messages from the ministry of labour to attend the meeting with the government at the office of the SGF. He said organised labour would honour the invitation to attend the meeting but the only thing that could stop the planned action was a reversal of the fuel price increase and the 46 per cent increase in electricity tariff. “I have received a text message inviting us to a meeting tomorrow (Monday) at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and we will attend. 

 

‘‘We will attend those meetings but the notice given is not conditional to our action. It is conditional on the reversal of the hike in the price of petroleum and the hike in electricity tariff. “But we are saying that is not what is crucial; what is crucial is that we will mobilise unless there is reversal. If there is no reversal, we will meet on the streets.” Ozo-Eson dismissed the reports attributed to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that the increase was necessitated by the scarcity of foreign exchange. He said it was inconceivable for the government to make an arrangement that would allow the black market exchange rate determine the price of fuel in the country. He argued that there was nothing new in what Mohammed said as it was part of the presentation by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, which was rejected by organised labour. READ ALSO: Fuel subsidy removal: 

 

He stated, “The nation does not submit to the pronouncement that the fate of Nigerians will now be determined by black market exchange rate because that is the bottom line of what they are doing. “There is nothing new in what he is saying; we reject it and the position we are taking is based on part of that information. It changes nothing. It is unacceptable.” 

 

Meanwhile, the two major unions in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector endorsed the price modulation mechanism adopted by the Federal Government to arrive at the new N145 per litre pump price for petrol.