Strike Notice: Tinubu Begs Labour For More Time
Following the threat of a nationwide industrial action by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday pleaded with the organised Labour for more time to consider and address their grievances on a wholistic basis.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, conveyed the presidential plea to the NLC while addressing State House Correspondents after leading the House officers to brief the President on the outcome of their engagement with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) that has declared a nationwide strike.
This is as the Federal Government on Wednesday evening held an emergency meeting with the Organised Labour comprising of the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to Speaker Abbas, the President pleaded that being new in office, he needed time to evaluate all the issues raised by workers over which he is yet to be fully briefed.
The Speaker, who explained the importance of the two-day consecutive meeting with the president, said the House leadership invited NARD following their intention to go on strike and was able to persuade and extract a commitment from the Association to shelve the action for now.
He said the purpose of their visits was to brief the President on the progress made with the Resident Doctors, saying; “Yesterday’s visit was primarily to brief Mr President on our engagement with National Residents Doctors Association whom we got wind were planning to embark on strike. So, we invited them and we persuaded them to withdraw from that plan.
“Sequel to the meetings we had with them, there were a series of conditions that they gave that we felt that we need to share with Mr President. And that is what brought me yesterday, to intimate him of what we have discussed and the agreements so far reached them and issues that they have raised that need his attention.
“And today’s visit, as you can see, we are together, the whole leadership of the House is here. Since our election, as leaders of the 10th House of Representatives, we didn’t come formally to present them to Mr President. So, today, we requested for this audience primarily to bring and introduce them for him to get to know them and for them to get to know him. That’s just what we are here for.”
The Speaker, while hinting government’s next line of action with the doctors already embarking on the strike despite the House’s intervention, said; “Well, it’s a work in progress. I’m sure some of the issues that they have raised if we are able to meet some of their expectations halfway, which we are on it, things may likely change.
“We have already set up an ad-hoc committee chaired by the Majority Leader of the House to look at those issues. I’m sure one or two interventions in their areas of concern, we will prevail on them to come back to the negotiating table and also accept to withdraw that strike.”
On the NLC’s planned strike scheduled to commence on August 2 if anti-people policies were not reversed, Speaker Abbas said; “In the same manner, same way, we will also invite them to come and so that we hear their grievances and then we follow the same pattern of engaging and persuading them to give us a little time so that we can work on meeting their expectations.”
In a related development, the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Ms Olu Verheijin, said the Federal Government is focused on resolving issues amicably with the leadership of Organised Labour in order to prevent the planned strike.
Verheijin spoke after a meeting of the Federal Government’s Steering Committee on Palliatives comprising the leadership of NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja in continuation of their talks on palliatives to cushion the effect of subsidy removal.
According to her, the Steering Committee meeting focused on how stakeholders could fast-track interventions that would bring relief, particularly around Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), mass transportation, cleaner energy, and transportation, as well as reducing the impact of the cost of transportation.
