The Nigeria Labour Congress has stated that the government must meet its demands in order to mitigate the impact of the elimination of fuel subsidies, which is due to take place today (Monday).
The union warned that it would not hesitate to call workers out for strike action, but simply deferred its scheduled strike.
It noted that the high cost of petrol was causing excruciating misery for Nigerians, and that the government needed to move quickly to provide palliatives, as the NLC predicted an increase in the minimum wage from N30,000 to N150,000.
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The Federal Government and labor unions met on June 5, 2023, and agreed to reconvene on June 19 to reach an agreement on the implementation framework of the resolutions reached.
Femi Gbajabiamila, former Speaker of the House of leaders and current Chief of Staff to the President, who led the government side, revealed this at the end of a meeting between labor and government leaders at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
According to him, the June 5 meeting agreed on a seven-point resolution to mitigate the impact of the elimination of subsidies on Premium Motor Spirit, also known as fuel, on Nigerians.
“The Federal Government, the TUC, and the NLC to establish a joint committee to review the proposal for any wage increase or award and establish a framework and timeline for implementation.
“The Federal Government, the TUC and the NLC to review the World Bank Financed Cash transfer scheme and propose the inclusion of low-income earners in the programme.
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“The Federal Government, the TUC and the NLC to revive the CNG conversion programme earlier agreed with Labour centres in 2021 and work out detailed implementation and timing,” Gbajabiamila had stated.
When approached on Sunday to remark on labor’s expectations from the meeting slated for today (Monday), Adewale Adeyanju, Vice President, NLC, said a lot of things had been provided by labor groups, emphasizing that the government should not behave funny.
“There are a lot of things that labour has been putting before the government. The refineries need to be revamped. We cannot continue to import refined petroleum products and be spending on subsidies all the time.
“Labour has its set of demands and by the time we meet with the government tomorrow we will list them out again,” he stated.
When asked what action the NLC would take if the government did not give in to labor demands, given the misery of Nigerians due to the loss of subsidy, Adeyanju responded, “You know, we only suspended our strike as a result of the need to meet on this.”
“So the government should know that things are becoming difficult and they (the government) should not decide to do anything funny. The strike was only suspended. It was an ultimatum that was given out and it (strike) was suspended.
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“So let’s hear what the government has for us and then we will know what to tell our members. It is about the lives of the people. Let’s meet them tomorrow and then labour will come out with its position.”
Adeyanju, however, expressed optimism that the meeting would be fruitful and insisted that the NLC would not want the government to behave funny.
“We hope that the meeting is going to be fruitful. The expectations are very high. The nation is watching and people are looking at how the Nigeria Labour Congress is going to handle the situation.
“And the government too will not like to behave funny because they know the country is battling with the increase in fuel pump price and so many things,” he stated.
Concerning the request by oil marketers to deploy compressed natural gas at filling stations, an NLC official claimed that the Federal Government had formed a technical committee to investigate the topic.
“The government has set up a technical committee on some of these issues. So I don’t want us to preempt the outcomes that will come out from that meeting tomorrow between labour and the government,” he stated.
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In response to the need for CNG deployment, Chinedu Okonkwo, National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, noted that oil marketers were waiting for the outcome of the meeting between the Federal Government and labor before making any decisions.
“That meeting tomorrow (Monday) is very crucial, because marketers are ready to deploy CNG, but the outcome of that meeting will tell us whether the government is ready to give the support needed to make this initiative fruitful.
“We are very confident that with the deployment of CNG as a substitute to PMS, the harsh effect caused by petrol price hike would be addressed significantly,” Okonkwo stated on Sunday.
The NLC also indicated on Sunday that it expects the minimum wage to be raised from N30,000 to between N150,000 and N200,000.
It also requested President Bola Tinubu to reopen borders to allow for the easy import and export of food and farm products.
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Hakeem Ambali, the NLC’s National Treasurer, made the revelation in a conversation with one of our journalists in Abuja.
When asked about the NLC’s expectations for today’s meeting, Ambali stated, “We are saying that since petrol prices have increased by three folds, we expect minimum wage to be increased to a minimum of between N150,000 and N200,000.”
He stated that the NLC expected President Bola Tinubu to provide operational licenses for the establishment of more modular refineries.
“We want a transparent agency to be set up to oversee these refineries. We don’t have to depend solely on multinationals. Already, we have some Nigerians who refine crude oil locally.
“Also, on the issue of energy, some Nigerians buy fuel for their generators and provide power for themselves, we want a review of the corrupt privatisation of the energy sector that gave generation and sale of energy to private individuals who have not added value to energy consumption in Nigeria,” he stated.
He said it was time for the government to look inward and see that these individuals were discharged for incompetence.
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“Alternate power supplies like solar systems should also be put in place. When you travel to other countries like Israel, you see that solar energy is available there and cheaper and this is a clean energy alternative.
“We also want them to look into the transportation sector. We want the President to develop a master plan and provide a metro rail line for all the state capitals across the country. He should also open up the border and allow the free flow of market goods into Nigeria and outside Nigeria.
“The cost of running governance is too high. We also looked at that and we are of the opinion that the high cost of governance and number of appointments be brought down. We also believe that there should be a micro-credit scheme that should be put in place that will give loans to farmers and entrepreneurs at small digit rates,” he stated.
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