Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria have jointly issued a 14-day nationwide strike notice to President Bola Tinubu’s government regarding the hardship facing most Nigerians. It was issued in a statement on February 8, 2024, signed by NLC president Joe Ajaero and TUC president Festus Osifoh.
The notice blames Tinubu’s failure to implement the 16-point agreement it reached with organised labour on October 2, 2023, following the removal of the fuel subsidy.
The union leaders stated that the agreement “focused on addressing the massive suffering and the general harsh socioeconomic consequences of the ill-conceived and ill-executed IMF-World Bank-induced hike in the price of PMS and the devaluation of the naira…. It is regrettable that we are compelled to resort to such measures, but the persistent neglect of the welfare of citizens and Nigerian workers and the massive hardship leave us with no choice,” said NLC and TUC.
The statement added, “Constrained by this development and recognising the urgency of the situation and the imperative of ensuring the protection and defence of the rights and dignity of Nigerian workers and citizens, the NLC and TUC hereby issue a stern ultimatum to the federal government to honour their part of the understanding within 14 days from tomorrow, the 9th day of February 2024.”
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu government has appealed to the NLC and the TUC to avoid embarking on a nationwide strike. Mohammed Idris, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, said “Well, we appeal to labour to always see reason with the government. It is not in the government’s interest for the labour to continue to go on strike. I think the government keeps its promises. If there are other things that they (NLC, TUC) think they are concerned about, I think that they will sit down with the government and the government is ever ready to listen to labour so that we can have an amicable resolution to all these.”
He added “We appeal with labour, let them come again, around the table to continue to have engagements and conversations around whatever grey areas they think they have in some of these agreements that have already been signed.”
