The Nigeria Governors’ forum yesterday met with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to persuade the latter from mobilising workers to embark on a nationwide protest against the recent hike in electricity tariff and pump price of fuel.
Electricity distribution companies (DisCos) had hiked their tariffs from about N30.23 to about N62.33 per kWh for Nigerians after the federal government said it would no longer subsidise electricity consumption.
Similarly, the price of petrol increased from N145 to N161 per litre when the federal government withdrew subsidy on petrol.
Consequently, the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) jointly declared their readiness to embark on a nationwide strike as from tomorrow, September 28 should the federal government fail to rescind the increases.
But to forestall the commencement of the proposed strike, the NGF made up of the 36 governors entered into a meeting with the organised labour, pleading with the workers to jettison the action.
Speaking at the parley, chairman of the NGF and governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi said the timing for the action was inauspicious and could aggravate an already worsening situation if not averted and therefore urged the NLC to rethink its strategy.
To buy more time, the Forum pledged to take up the matter with President Muhammadu Buhari, the vice president, Prof Yemi Osibanjo, secretary to the government of the federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, among others to resolve the matter.
Fayemi was accompanied to the meeting by the director general of the NGF, Mr. Asishana Okauru while the NLC president Mr. Ayuba Wabba was accompanied by the TUC president Mr. Quadri Olaleye and the NLC general secretary, Mr. Emmanuel Ugboajah.
A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting reads: “The Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the Nigeria Labour Congress are on the path to resolving the impasse occasioned by the threat by workers to embark on industrial action if the federal government does not rescind the recent decisions to increase the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS) and electricity tariff in the country.
“This is the outcome of an early morning dialogue between representatives of the Forum and workers which took place at the residence of the Chairman of the NGF, in Abuja, early on Saturday.
“The NGF Chairman said, no one that is conversant with the prevailing situation in the country would disagree with labour and its demands, as it were, but pleaded that Governors be given time to consult more broadly with the various stakeholders, including the secretary to the government of the federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, the vice president, and the president. This he said would be a top priority for the NGF and promised to head straight to the presidency once the meeting was over.
“The chairman of the NGF and governor of Ekiti State, Dr Fayemi spoke for the Forum, while the NLC President Comrade Ayuba Wabba who was accompanied by the TUC president Quadri Olaleye and the NLC general secretary, Emmanuel Ugboajah, to the meeting. Also at the meeting was the director general of the NGF Mr. Asishana Okauru.
“Fayemi emphasised that the plight of workers in the country was already in dire straits and that any action embarked upon by the union at this time would further worsen their situation as contained in the communiqué issued by governors after their first emergency meeting on Thursday, 24th September 2020, since the outbreak of the pandemic and eventual lockdown of the country, last March.
“The governors’ chairman expressed the hope that this gesture from the governors would also energise the leadership of labour to put a hold on their planned action.
“On his part, the president of the NLC said the federal government violated the time-tested global process of dialogue and thanked the NGF chairman for his efforts at ensuring that sanity returns to the negotiation table.
“When the cost of PMS rises, the cost of everything in the country rises with it, the NLC president explained.
“He agreed with the NGF chairman and also praised him for agreeing to broaden the mechanism for consultation on the matter saying “I praise you for showing a good grasp of this matter and I believe that if they had widened the mechanism for consultation and involved people like you, we wouldn’t have come to this pass.
“In conclusion, Dr Fayemi stated that government and labour are not that far apart in the negotiation and the differences are not irreconcilable.”
It would also be recalled that Justice Ibrahim Galadima of the National Industrial Court in Abuja had issued an order restraining the NLC from embarking on the strike.
The order followed an ex parte application moved by federal government’s team comprising Mrs. Maimuna Shiru and Mr. Tijjani Gazali of the department civil litigation of the federal ministry of justice
The court restrained the unions, their officers, affiliates, privies from disrupting, restraining, picketing or preventing the workers or its affiliates or ordinary Nigerians from “accessing their offices to carry out their legitimate duties on the 28th September 2020 or any other date”.
Also granted is an order compelling the inspector-general of police and the director-general, Department of State Services (DSS) to provide protection for workers “engaged in their legitimate duties from any form of harassment, intimidation and bullying by the officers, agents or privies of the unions pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”
Meanwhile, despite the court’s injunction and the NGF-NLC meeting, it was gathered that some affiliate unions to TUC and NLC had mobilized to Abuja for the strike.
Olaleye told journalists at the ‘National stakeholders’ forum and policy documents dissemination’ under the ‘Africa We Want’ project organised by ActionAid Nigeria in Abuja yesterday that strike remains the only option.
He said the TUC and NLC were disappointed by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government’s failure to diversify the economy as it promised before the 2015 presidential election. He also said had the government fulfilled its promise of diversifying the economy and also listened to them there would not have been any need to increase electricity tariff and pump price of petrol.
“Before labour can threaten to strike it means the government has failed to implement or listen to our suggestions. On many occasions, we have suggested a better way to run the economy.
“We have suggested the need for the government to diversify the economy. The need for government to declare a state of emergency in agriculture because the food and raw materials we use in this country are imported, and there is need for government to diversify the economy.
“If it is diversified as this government promised in 2015 by now we will not have an issue of electricity tariff or issue of PMP price increase because people will have enough disposable income in their account to be able to patrionise all these essential services but the issue is that the economy is not diversified and everybody’s attention is on crude oil, and most of their friends smile to banks without doing anything.
“As at May 2020 we made an alternative policy on how to run the economy and it was a very comprehensive alternative way to run the government but the government refused and now we are pushed to the wall.
“The only option left for us is to declare strike and mass protest, and it is going to bring solution because what the strike needs to prove to the people that are ruling us is that we are the owners of the country and we are in the majority,” he said.
Speaking with Vanguard, the deputy national president of the NLC and general secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Mr. Joe Ajaero said there was no contrary instruction that the protest will not hold.
On whether the court injunction had been served to labour, Ajaero said: “I am not sure any court injunction has been served to us. Are they giving injunctions to us or Nigerians? If they serve us it is a wrong tactic, what’s happening is that Nigerians are protesting so maybe they will serve Nigerians the injunction.
“It is action taken by Nigerians and labour is part of Nigeria and we are going to protest. If you serve one party and you don’t serve the other, the other will still go ahead,” he said.
Similarly, the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Nigerian Civil Service Union (NCSU) directed their members to get ready to participate actively in the nationwide protest slated to commence on Monday.
“You are hereby directed to mobilise all our formal and informal sectors members in your Zone to adequately mobilize for the successful execution of this resolution. You are further directed to set up task forces in your Zone to enforce this very important directive,” said NUPENG’s general secretary, Mr. Afolabi Olawale in a statement.
His counterpart in NCSU, Yahaya Ndako directed its members to comply with the resolve to shut down the country’s economy because of the federal government’s failure to reverse the hike in fuel price and electricity tariffs.
Meanwhile, the government warned all the federal civil servants against joining the strike.
“All officers on Grade Level 12 and above and those on essential services are hereby strongly advised to be at work to perform their official duties,” said the head of the civil service, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan in a statement.
Yemi-Esan said the federal government was in talks with the labour unions towards the resolution of the workers’ agitation.
