Fidelis Soriwei and Olusola Fabiyi
The Federal Government has invited the
leadership of organised labour to a meeting in the Office of the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation on Monday to discuss the
increase of fuel pump price from N86 and N86.50k to N145.
Representatives of organised labour and
the civil society had, after a meeting in Abuja on Saturday, given the
Federal Government till midnight on Tuesday to reverse the increase or
face an indefinite national strike.
The group gave the strike notice in a
joint communiqué issued by the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade
Union Congress after the meeting.
The General Secretary of the Nigeria
Labour Congress, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, told one of our correspondents on
the telephone on Sunday that organised labour had received invitations
via text messages from the Ministry of Labour on Sunday to attend the
meeting with the government at the office of the SGF.
Ozo-Eson said while organised labour
would honour the invitation to attend the meeting, 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.
He said if the Federal Government failed
to reverse the two increases, the government should be prepared to meet
Nigerians on the streets.
Ozo-Eson added that the first meeting
between organised labour and the Federal Government over the dispute
would hold at 3pm on Monday.
He said, “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.
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.”
A source in the Ministry of Labour and
Employment, who confided in one of our correspondents, said the
government was “reaching out to labour.”
The source believed there would be no
strike as the Federal Government would make every efforts to ensure that
there was dialogue.
“The Federal Government does not want
strike, we will discuss. Government is making every effort to ensure
that there is no strike,” the source stated.
The Special Adviser to the Minister of
Labour and Employment on Media, Mr. Nwachukwu Ngige, said he could not
reach the minister for his comment on the issue on Sunday.
But the Conference of Nigeria Political
Parties on Sunday warned Nigerians not be deceived again ahead of the
planned industrial action by organised labour over the increase in the
pump price of petrol.
CNPP also urged Nigerians not to trust the labour unions, alleging that they had been compromised.
It said the planned strike, scheduled for Wednesday, wouldn’t last beyond Friday.
If further alleged that the labour
unions were using the strike as a ploy to scuttle genuine actions
against the increment in pump price as they did in 2012.
The umbrella body of political parties
in Nigeria said these in a statement jointly signed on Sunday by its
National Chairman, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, and the Secretary-General,
Chief Willy Ezugwu.
The CNPP said, “What the labour unions are doing now by calling for a strike was what they did in 2012 during the Occupy Nigeria protests in response to similar increase in the pump price of petrol under former President Goodluck Jonathan.
“The labour unions later scuttled the
action by purportedly entering into an agreement with the then
government on behalf of Nigerians and ended up fixing the pump price of
petrol at N97.00 per litre.
“We have it on good authority that the labour leaders have been compromised.
‘‘Recall that the labour leaders were at
a meeting, where the decision to inflict more and more pains on the
already impoverished Nigerian people by increasing the pump price was
taken and never protested against it. Why the sudden U-turn by the same
labour leaders?”
The statement added that the ever increasing hardship enthroned on Nigerians by the current government could not be tolerated.
“The Federal Government and its labour
collaborators must be told that the CNPP, the masses and the civil
society shall occupy Nigeria until the reversal of the pump price of
petrol. Enough of more and more suffering under the guise of fuel
subsidy removal,” the statement added.
PUNCH.
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