A
last minute meeting between the federal government and Nigeria Labour
Congress, NLC, on Tuesday night to attempt to avert a nationwide strike
over increased petrol price, collapsed mid-way as representatives of the
organised labour staged a walkout on government representatives.
The
NLC says the talks broke down because the government refused to even
consider its demand for a reversal of the price hike, and an earlier
increase in electricity tariffs.
The meeting, called by the Secretary
to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal, was attended
by the president of NLC, Aliyu Wabba, who led representatives of
affiliate groups including Trade Union Congress, TUC, and civil society
organisations.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the meeting was barely an
hour into its agenda when the labour leaders decided to stage a walkout
after what they called the “refusal of government to accede to their
demands”.
The General Secretary of the NLC, Peter Ozo-Eson, who spoke
with PREMIUM TIMES on phone shortly after leaving the venue of the
meeting, said members could not continue to put up with the government’s
unbending attitude towards their demands.
“The talks with government
broke down because it was not ready to address the issues the NLC
placed on the table for discussion; so we left,” Mr. Ozo-Eson said.
“The
demands the NLC and its affiliates made formally in writing on Saturday
were that government should first revert to the fuel price of N86.50
per litre before any other decision.
“Again, we demanded that the
electricity tariff imposed on the people last January should also be
reversed. But, government said they were not ready to discuss such
things.
“They said they wanted to discuss minimum wage and
palliatives. But, those were not issues we were ready to start any
discussion with,” he said.
Mr. Ozo-Eson said labour was not
interested in listening to what offers government was going to make in
respect of the two issues it offered to talk about, saying their
interest was a complete reversal of the fuel price and electricity
tariff.
He said the government could not be talking about minimum
wage first when most Nigerians are not even working and are being tasked
further financially and economically by the hike in fuel price and
increased electricity tariff.
Source- http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/203609-nationwide-strike-walked-meeting-nigerian-govt-nlc.html/
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