As NLC Insists on August 2 Protests, Tinubu Pleads For More Time To Address Labour’s Grievances

President Bola Tinubu has made passionate plea to the organised labour centre to give him more time to look into their myriad of grievances rather than embarking on strike action saying he is relatively new in office.

The President’s position was made public on Wednesday evening by Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Tajudeen Abbas, while addressing newsmen at the State House, Abuja, after leading House principal officers to brief the president on the outcome of their engagement with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), which has declared a nationwide strike.

President Tinubu, according to him, stressed that he is new in office and will require some time to evaluate the issues that are being raised by workers over which he is yet to be briefed. 

Abass said: “What he said is that he’s just coming on board. We should ask them and beg them to please give him a little more time. The things that they mentioned, he is completely unaware of them, he is yet to be briefed about all those issues.

“But from what he heard from me, he also advised that we should channel some of those issues to the Chief of Staff to look at them one after the other.

“I believe the next coming days, some concerted actions will be taken.”

The Speaker explained that the House leadership invited the resident doctors following their intention to go on strike, saying the parliamentarians succeeded in persuading them to shelve the plan.

His words: “Sequel to the meeting we had with them, there were series of conditions that they gave, that we felt we need to share with the president”.

Abass maintained that the purpose of the visit to the State House on Wednesday was to intimate the President of the progress made with the doctors association adding 

that the House leadership also used the visit for familiarity purposes as they had not met with the president since they emerged House leaders.

On why the second visit in 24 hours to the State House, the Speaker said: “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 to withdraw that plan. Sequel to the meetings we had with them, there were 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 on what we have discussed and the agreements so far reached with 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 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.”

Asked what the next step will be since the House intervention didn’t stop them from declaring industrial action, he said: “Well, it’s a work in progress. I’m sure some of the issues that they have raised, if we can be able to meet some of their expectations halfway of which we are on it, we already set up an adhoc 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 what the House was doing to halt the August 2 protest by organised labour centre, Abbas said: “In the same manner, same way, we will also invite them to come and sit 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 be able to meet their expectations.”

Meanwhile, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Joe Ajaero, has insisted that the August 2, 2023 nationwide protest by labour unions will go ahead if nothing is done to ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians brought about by increase in the price of PMS. 

Speaking to reporters at the State House, Abuja on Wednesday evening on the outcome of the meeting with Federal Government’s Steering Committee on Palliatives led by the Special  Adviser to the President on  Energy, Olu Verheijen,  Ajaero said: “Well the outcome is very brief.

We met based on N520 increase and the committee that was set based on that and we agreed to to work to realise the objectives that was set during the last moment.”

Asked  about organised Labour position on the palliatives yet to be provided, the NLC boss said: “The two centers have made their position known and is before Nigerians, the TUC, the NLC, our position is known. And it’s public knowledge.”

Asked if Labour was going ahead with  August 2nd planned protests if the federal government doesn’t reverse anti-labour policies, he said: “Well, policies? I wouldn’t know, we are going ahead with the protest because we have to be emphatic on what we put in our communique, to say we’re commencing protests from the 2nd.”

Prodded if that means the organised Labour was not satisfied with the outcome of Wednesday’s meeting, Ajaero said: “This meeting has no relationship with the….remember and I want you to be careful about it. There is N520 increment, which gave birth to this meeting. Nobody is discussing about N617 as at now and this meeting didn’t have the competence to address that. Is that clear? There are two issues, does that make sense?”

Also speaking on the outcome of the meeting,  President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr Festus Osifo, said: “Okay, we’ve had a meeting and the meeting majorly is to listen to the presentations that is coming from the Secretariat of the steering committee, so they have made presentation to us. We made our robust inputs into it.

“Some of the things they presented we did not agree with them. So the areas we did not agree, we also made our imputes known because when you come to such meeting it is for government or its representatives to do a presentation. But it’s left for us to either agree or disagree. 

“So during the meeting, we gave them sufficient feedback. And they also agreed to go and look at those feedbacks and get back to us on Friday.”

He, however, failed to mention the areas of disagreement saying, “We are still discussing, I don’t think it is quite good for us to be discussing those particular subjects now more so because they told us that they will come back to us by Friday and Friday is about 48 hours away. 

“So it is better we hold on, we wait till Friday for them to give us a feedback then we can go into the nitty gritty.”

On what the summary of what labour really wants from government is, Osifo said: “What we want government to do is to address the plight of Nigerians. Nigerians are suffering, just as we said in our press conference few days ago, that Nigerians are suffering, that things are hard, that things are difficult, because things are difficult today in Nigeria, you must roll up programmes that will ameliorate the suffering, because at the end of the day, it is about Nigerians, because government exists in order to take care of the downtrodden, majorly. 

“So all we are saying is that government must as a matter of urgency, because we don’t have we don’t have that time anymore. So as a matter of urgency must roll out various programs that will create alternative to PMS, and also palliatives. 

“So these are the two focus, alternative to PMS, that is about the CNG and also the palliatives that must be brought out to ameliorate these sufferings Nigerians are passing through.”

Asked what  the timeline is,  he said: “We are meeting again on Friday. So,  when we meet on Friday, we will hear from them, they can tell us that by Monday morning, they will start rolling them out here so we meet on Friday.”

On her part, Special Adviser Verheijen, who spoke on behalf of the federal government said progress had been made in the discussion.

According to her: “We’ve agreed to continue to make progress. It was a very productive meeting. The focus was really around how we fasttrack a lot of the interventions that will bring relief, particularly around CNG, mass transportation, cleaner energy, transportation, and reduce the impact of the cost of transportation, the increased cost of transportation. 

“So we’ve made good progress. And we’re going to continue to do so and so that we can start rolling out these opportunities and this relief and measures as quickly as possible.”

On why government is foot dragging to roll out palliatives, Verheijen  said: “We have to get it right. It’s important that we do this well, and we keep our promises. So, it’s important that whatever is announced actually gets done. Because we don’t want to make big announcements that will continue to lose people’s trust. 

“It’s important that we build trust, and that most of the announcements and the plans that we roll out are credible and impactful.”

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is working assiduously to address all of these issues. And as quickly as he can. He’s very empathetic, he is concerned about it, as you’ve seen all of us working round the clock here to make sure that we are able to announce these measures as quickly as possible. It’s a whole package of issues that we’re rolling out as quickly as possible”.

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

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