The Federal Government last week increased the price of fuel from N86.50 to N145 per litre. Consequently, organised labour unions threatened to commence a nationwide strike from today unless the situation is reversed.
Efforts at a resolution of the crisis between the leadership of the NLC and the government , including a special ad hoc committee set up by the House of Representatives to avert the strike ended in a deadlock.
There were indications that the insistence of government on selling petrol at N145 per litre and taking labour unions before the NIC may have hardened Labour’s resolve to go ahead with the strike.
Indeed, as the NLC was holding its emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the Labour House, around 2:00p.m. yesterday, information filtered in that the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, had approached the court to declare the strike illegal.
This jolted the members of the NEC who expressed dismay at the turn of events and resolved to proceed on the industrial action.
Not only did they move a motion stopping the President of Congress, Ayuba Wabba and his team from attending a scheduled meeting with the House of Representatives, but suggested that Labour should also boycott a meeting slated with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), David Lawal, which was scheduled to hold at 3:00p.m.
Indeed, the NEC meeting of the NLC ended around 5:00p.m. and they headed for the House of Representatives meeting after which they planned to attend the one with the SGF and his team.
Also yesterday, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, declared that even though President Muhammadu Buhari did not believe that the prices of petroleum products should go up, he had no option in the recent increase in the price of the petrol just announced.
Osinbajo, who spoke at the at the public presentation of Anatomy of Corruption in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges & Solutions, a collection of essays edited by Yusuf O. Ali, SAN, asserted that “a lot of the problems associated with the refineries are corruption-related.”
The Senate rose from a one-hour closed-door meeting over the fuel issue, calling on the Executive to speedily provide palliatives to cushion the effects of the price increase.
The closed-door session which was presided over by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, also called on organised labour and other stakeholders to show commitment to resolving the issues in order not to jeopardise the economy . He said that the Senate sympathised with ordinary people over the hardships they are going through.
Also, former Minister of Petroleum, Chief Philip Asiodu, has called for ‘structured dialogue.’ He urged the Nigerian workers union to exercise patience and allow room for proper education and enlightenment of Nigerians on the issue.
Read More >>>
No comments:
Post a Comment