Labour leaders storm Villa meeting, demand strike

At a meeting with the Presidential Steering Committee on Subsidy Palliatives set to take place at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday evening, representatives of organized labor rushed out.

Around 5:00 p.m., NLC President Joe Ajaero led a delegation to the Chief of Staff to the President’s office, but he soon disappeared outside.

On Wednesday, the steering committee members met with the government delegation. The two sides decided to meet again on Friday to get an update from the government’s subcommittees on cash transfers, compressed natural gas, and mass transit.

The Federal Government established the steering group to develop intervention strategies to mitigate the consequences of the elimination of fuel subsidies on Nigerians.

The labor members accused the Federal Government of using the meetings as a ruse to mislead Nigerians as they left the CoS office.

They are not prepared for the meeting, according to a committee member from organized labor who spoke on the record. That is the reality.

“They are misleading Nigerians by utilizing cover. The government was unprepared for the meeting, despite there being three subcommittees – the mass transport subcommittee, the CNG subcommittee, and the cash transfer – to brief us in the steering committee.

“They offered explanations and requested that the meeting go on despite the lack of a quorum in their opening remarks. We are a people that base our actions on procedures. So what do you do if there isn’t a quorum at a meeting? Due to a lack of quorum, you will adjourn.

“No one was available to meet with. They are treating us like children because the chief of staff wasn’t present.

However, our journalist discovered that Femi Gbajabiamila, the CoS to the President, was waiting for the labor delegation with other team members.

However, due to clearance concerns, the delegation of organized labor from the NLC and the Trade Union Congress experienced brief delays before entering the State House. The identities of the delegation’s members were not submitted to the gate in time for clearance, which caused the delay.

Later, while the other members of the government team were waiting for the organized labor team to arrive, Gbajabiamila excused himself to attend to other official affairs inside the Villa.

One of the labor delegation’s leaders informed reporters, “We were held at the gate.

The Federal Government and the organized labor would have met on Friday for the fourth time since the withdrawal of the gasoline subsidy.

The steering committee’s most recent meeting was on Wednesday, but the representatives of the Federal Government were unable to persuade the labor leaders to call off the demonstration.

Ajaero had stated, “We are continuing the protest because we have to be emphatic on what we put in our communiqué to indicate we’re beginning protests from the 2nd of August.

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The sessions had made some progress, nevertheless, according to the Federal Government.

“We decided to keep moving forward. It was a highly successful conference. In particular, CNG, mass transit, greener energy, transportation, and minimizing the impact of the cost of transportation and the rising cost of transportation were the main areas of concern. So, we’ve made significant progress, Ms. Olu Verheijen, Special Advisor to the President on Energy, told reporters.

The National Executive Council of the NLC, meantime, has approved the organization’s call for a statewide strike on August 2 and large-scale demonstrations in response to the recent increase in the price of gasoline at the pump.

The Federal Government has informed the NLC that the proposed statewide strike was illegal and therefore prohibited.

B. E. Jedy-Agba, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, said in a statement on Wednesday that the National Industrial Court’s judgment prohibiting the union from going on strike in protest over the elimination of the gasoline subsidy had restricted the union from taking action.

According to her, the court had issued an injunctive order on June 5 prohibiting the NLC and the Trade Union Congress “from commencing the planned industrial action/or strike of any sort, until the hearing and determination of the pending motion on notice.”

As opposed to “resorting to self-help and defying the instructions of the court,” Jedy-Agba recommended the union to look into alternative channels for negotiating with the Federal Government.

However, the NLC NEC members also gave their approval to other decisions made by the NLC Central Working Committee during a meeting held on Tuesday in a statement released at the conclusion of their meeting on Thursday.

“NEC-in-session after exhaustively deliberating and reviewing the current socioeconomic situation confronting Nigerian workers and masses, and the attendant mass suffering and deprivation across the nation as a result of the unfortunate actions and policies of the current occupiers of t” was how the communiqué, which was signed by the NLC’s President and General Secretary, Joe Ajaero and Emma Ugboaja, respectively, and made available to our correspondent on Friday, read in part.

“To this end, NEC-in-session welcomes, affirms, and backs all the decisions of the Central Working Committee meeting of July 25, 2023, of the immediate reversal of all anti-poor policies of the Federal Government, including the recent increase in PMS price, Increase in public school fees, the release of the eight months’ withheld salary of university lecturers and workers, and Increase in VAT.

“The immediate establishment of the Presidential Steering Committee as agreed in the earlier consequential dialogues to launch the creation of a coalition of all Nigerians across the country where all will be leaders and all will be followers, to call on all civil society organizations and Nigerians wherever they may be to begin mobilizing to take action on their own to save our nation and to lead and organize mass protest rallies across the nation to express outrage

The NEC decided “to launch a nationwide action starting from Wednesday, August 2, 2023, to push the Federal Government to modify its anti-poor and anti-workers policies and to provide the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum within which to meet all our demands.

NEC orders all affiliates and state councils to mobilize immediately and closely coordinate with groups, people, and other organizations, including those that are already on the streets, in order to ensure that the government pays attention to the people.

NEC members insisted that the Federal Government’s lack of seriousness regarding the development of frameworks to mitigate the effects of the increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit or gasoline was demonstrated not only by the caliber of its representation at the hurriedly called meeting on Wednesday, but also by their lack of readiness to address the issues as they were raised.

NEC established strategy committees in each state and urged all affiliates and state councils, as well as the civil society, to demonstrate starting on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, across the country to denounce the government’s lack of concern for the needs of Nigerians.