With President Bola Tinubu spending barely one week in office, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has directed its affiliates to embark on a nationwide strike from Wednesday, June 7, 2023 should the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNCP) fail to revert the current pump price of petrol occasioned by the federal government’s withdrawal of fuel subsidy.
The NLC president, Mr. Joe Ajaero disclosed this to journalists after the national executive council (NEC) meeting of the congress in Abuja on Friday.
Recall that Tinubu, during his inaugural speech on Monday, May 29, 2023, announced the removal of fuel subsidy.
“The fuel subsidy is gone,” Tinubu had declared in his inaugural speech, although his spokesmen said in statements issued by the state house that Tinubu was misquoted by some sections of the media.
Following the announcement, the NNPC on Wednesday directed its outlets nationwide to sell fuel between N480 and N570 per litre, an almost 200 per cent increase from the initial price below N200.
Addressing journalists, Ajaero said the union was calling for a proper investigation into the process of subsidy to know those who are beneficiaries and the amount that is involved.
“If by next week Wednesday, the NNPCL that illegally announced a new price regime in the oil sector refuses to reverse itself for negotiation to continue, that the Nigeria Labour Congress and all its affiliates will withdraw their services and commence protest nationwide until this is complied with.
“NNPCL doesn’t have the monopoly to act illegally even as a private company. The NLC, therefore, directed all state councils and the industrial unions to commence mobilisation from this morning to make sure that this action is in force,” Ajaero said.
The labour leader also said the ongoing negotiation between the NLC and federal government might not produce any meaningful result until Tinubu constitutes his cabinet.
He said it was important that the NLC entered into negotiation with properly constituted government that would see that any decision taken would be binding on it.
“It is instructive that until the government is properly constituted and (there are) people who will negotiate with labour and such people with mandate and capacity to commit to the government of the day, such negotiations may not be valid,” he added.
According to him, it is instructive that until a government is properly constituted and the people who will negotiate with labour are such people with mandate and capacity to commit the government of the day, such negotiations may not be valid.
