Nigeria’s organized labour unions – the Nigerian Labour Union (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) is considering postponing the planned so called “Mother-of-all-strikes” nationwide it scheduled to commence Tuesday 3 October, after a last-minute negotiations with the federal government on Sunday evening appeared to have broken the deadlock.
A rattled federal government worried about the impact of strike on the already fractured economy had hurriedly asked for an emergency meeting with the unions on Sunday and upped its offers of palliatives in a bid to avert the strike. The unions are protesting the abrupt removal of fuel subsidies which sent fuel and transport costs surging high and causing soaring inflation across the economy.
An official statement from the Ministry of Information says the government now offered the following which appeared to have been consented to by the unions.
- A provisional wage increment of
N35,000 only for all treasury-paid federal government workers for 6months.
- A commitment to fast-tracking the provision of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses to ease public transportation.
- Provision of funds for micro and small-scale enterprises.
- VAT on diesel will be waived for the next 6 months.
- The Federal Government will pay
N75,000 to 15 million households atN25,000 per month between October and December 2023 alone
- The Federal Government delegation and the Labour team after elaborate deliberations thereafter resolved as follows:
- The issues in dispute can only be resolved when workers are at work and not when they are on strike.
- President Tinubu to consider the unions demands for higher wage reviews for workers.
With the new carrot dangled before the unions, Chief of Staff to President Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila said he was hopeful “that Labour will call a meeting of their various branches and executives tomorrow to present the agreements that have been reached, and we pray and we believe and we hope that the strike will be called off on Tuesday“.
Mr. Joe Ajaero, NLC President, speaking after the 4-hour meeting with the government said “We’ve looked at almost all the issues, all the promissory notes from the government and we’ll look at how to translate them to reality and to be workable. Then we’re going to take those promises to our organs. We’re hopeful that our organs will have a look at them and give us a fresh mandate on what next to do.”
His TUC counterpart, acting President, Tommy Etim Okon echoed a similar disposition.“We’ve had a series of conversations surrounding the issue raised and we do hope that by tomorrow we are going to get across to our organs so that we can also look at it and cross-fertilize ideas and see the way forward.”
The government was represented by the Chief of Staff to the President Femi Gbajabiamila and several ministers including Wale Edun – Economy Minister, Mohammed Idris – the Minister of Information and Simon Lalong – Labour and Productivity, among others.
Governors Abdulrazak Abdulrahman of Kwara State and Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State participated virtually.
The potential suspension of the strike after the union’s National Executive Council meetings on Monday suggests a willingness on both sides to avert the impact of a nationwide strike which could disrupt essential services and worsen the hardship on already traumatized Nigerians.
But some public policy analysts such as Rufai Oseni – anchorman of Arise TV The Morning Show consider the government’s offer “mere tokenism” and without concrete timelines and specificity, and wondered why the labour unions have abandoned the lofty ideals and sustainable solutions and demands they made in their Independence Day address to the nation, such as demanding the federal government to step up fixing the petrol refineries etc.
If the unions abandon the strike, they will have to walk back their extensive mobilization of all their organs and members across the country which were already poised for a showdown with the government, and could potentially suffer a trust deficit when it mobilizes for protests in the future.
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