Organized labour unions ended their Monday meeting of the Steering Committee on Palliatives at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, and insisted there is no going back on the planned protest over the removal of petroleum subsidy.
They also expressed doubts about President Bola Tinubu’s ability to control inflation and petrol prices due to the unification of the exchange rate.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, said the plan for workers to proceed on a peaceful protest from Wednesday has not changed.
He dismissed fears that the peaceful protest could be hijacked by hoodlums, saying that such had never happened in the history of workers’ protest.
However, he said it is the responsibility of security agencies to provide security for the protest to protect workers.
He said the meeting of the Steering Committee adjourned till 12 noon on Tuesday to enable the labour leaders to listen to the President’s national broadcast on Monday night.
Reacting to Tinubu’s plan to intervene on exchange rate over inflation and high cost of petrol prices, Ajaero said: “By the time you have a single market and you are not having anything that has a comparative advantage, your energy is import driven, then how are you going to control it? How are you going to control somebody that exchanged dollars at about 900 (naira)? Are you going to tell him to sell below the price?
“How are you going to tell even NEPA today, with the cost of production not increased tariffs? Even corn in the villages that was sold at N18,000 by February, now it’s about 56,000. How are you going to control it?”
On his side, the Chief of Staff to the President said that issues were trashed at the closed-door meeting and that they adjourned to listen to the President’s broadcast.
He also said that the government is dealing with the oil cabals that have brought the economy to its knees.
“We have been locked behind for a couple of hours, we had a good meeting, and issues were thrashed out on the situation in Nigeria today in terms of issues centred around government intervention in the situation in the country.
“We agreed to adjourn till tomorrow as you know Mr President is making a national broadcast today. Based on what we anticipate that Mr President will be telling Nigerians we decided to adjourn the meeting till 12 pm tomorrow before labour can decide whether or not they want to continue with the protest on Wednesday.
“But we believe that after tonight’s broadcast, the President will speak to all the issues, he will roll out his interventions and needles to say we believe any reasonable person will tell you that at that point there will be no need for any protest.”
Fielding a question on why the government did not roll out palliatives before announcing the stoppage of petrol subsidy he said that the previous government did not budget for subsidy and that President Tinubu is rolling out palliatives to cushion its effect on the people.
Asked whether the oil cabals are more powerful than the security and government, he said, “Yes they are and that’s what the government is dealing with. First of all, remove the subsidy, that’s the first step.”
The National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu, who also attended the meeting, pleaded with organised labour to give the administration little chance to fix the battered economy.
He said that President Tinubu inherited a bad economy that he is working hard to fix.
“The meeting was an opportunity for us to appeal to labour leaders and by extension Nigerians that we are facing difficulties and challenges that are not our making. We have inherited a very bad situation.
“Most of the problems people are talking about are not a creation of this government. This government is barely two months old and since we have been facing these difficulties and challenges, we have a listening and engaging President, a president who will want to have a conversation and react.
“He is truly, genuinely, and honestly doing it. Our appeal is please Nigerians to give us the support that is needed and required, we are working, and we are trying to change things. We inherited a very bad situation, we are trying to stop all those things we witnessed in the past, we are trying to stop the killings, stop the attacks on trains, stop attacks on prisons, stop IPOB what they are doing, stop bandits, stop Boko Haran,” he said.
Present at Monday’s meeting were Ajaero, his counterpart from TUC, Festus Osifo; the General Secretary of NLC, Comrade Emma Ugbaja; the TUC Secretary, Nuhu Toro and other members of the organised labour delegation including Prof. Sam Amadi.
From the side of government are the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila; the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Kachollom Daju; the Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari and the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen among others.
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