The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has threatened to go on what it termed ‘nationwide comprehensive strike’ from August 14, if the Federal Government fails to withdraw the court case it instituted against it.
The Organised labour had struck a mutual understanding with President Bola Tinubu which led to the aborted nationwide protest.
A communiqué issued at the end of the Congress’ National Executive Council (NEC) meeting,on Thursday, in Abuja, demanded the immediate withdrawal of alleged litigious terrorism by the Federal Ministry of Justice before the end of work on Friday, August 11.
Signed by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, the union vowed to embark on a nationwide total strike any day labour leaders are summoned to court by the government through the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN).
It alleged that the Federal Ministry of Justice, through the NICN, has continued to allow itself to be used as a vehicle to truncate the dominance of the tenets of democracy and silence the voices of workers. This was after the union was summoned to answer to contempt of court charges on Wednesday, the day it embarked on its nationwide protest.
The NEC-in-Session also supported and affirmed the decision to suspend further protests on the fuel subsidy removal while committing to maintain the required vigilance needed to hold the government accountable for its assurances on palliative spending.
It said after deliberating on the mood of the nation within the context of the suffering and deprivation of citizens across the country, it reviewed effectiveness of the execution of the mass protest, which it had ordered during the last session of the Council, especially the meetings with President Tinubu and leadership of the National Assembly and resolved to commit to the terminal date of August 19, 2023, within which issues around the petroleum price hike would be agreed, given the assurances of the President and the National Assembly.
While commending the national leadership and all the state officers for the effective coordination of the protest, it urged all affiliates and state councils, including civil society allies to stay further action but remain focused and vigilant.
TUC president, Festus Osifo, said the government has promised that plans are in place to address the grievances of Labour within next week and they have decided to give the government the benefit of doubt. He made this known during an interview with Arise News yesterday after NLC and TUC suspended further protests.
“Just as I said earlier, we had a meeting with the President and even before then, there was some level of intervention from the National Assembly with an appeal and also a promise that within the next one week that a lot of things will be put in place with some positive outcomes.
“We had that conversation earlier before we now had a meeting with President Tinubu and the President has committed to saying that okay, we should work with their team and propose something that could be for the wage award and that is he is ready to offer it almost immediately. This is in addition to the disclosure we got on the Port Harcourt refinery and the announcement that will also come on Friday associated with the CNG.
“So, we now came back to our secretariat, and we had some sort of conversations across that. We decided to give them some benefit of doubt because they kept repeating that ‘we are a new government, we promise and when we promise, we must act,” Osifo stated.
When asked about the next line of action if in the next seven days, as promised by government, there is no positive feedback, Osifo said: “As unions, we don’t just sit down and define this line of actions because we have organs, so this information that the President has given us, we are going to call out our meetings and we will also do the reviews.
“Then after those reviews, we will wait and watch, when nothing is being done, trust that the two label centres will also meet to take a stand to push the government to act.”
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