BREAKING: Nigerian government’s meeting with NLC over fuel subsidy removal ends in stalemate

 

The meeting between the Nigerian government and the organised labour has hit a deadlock as no consensus was reached.

The meeting which was held on Wednesday, May 31, 2023, at the Conference Hall of the Chief of Staff to the President came after the announcement by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that subsidy on fuel had gone and new prices of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) introduced by NNPCL.

The organised labour was led by the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero and his counterpart for the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Festus Osifo.

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The former President of NLC and immediate past governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the Permanent Secretary, State House, Tijjani Umar, the Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan, the Group Chief Executive Officer, of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, and a Director in the defunct Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Organization, Dele Alake, among others attended the meeting.

Speaking at the end of the meeting, the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, said, “As far as labour is concerned, we didn’t have a consensus in this meeting.”

He faulted the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited over an official release published hours earlier, reviewing the petrol pump price in its filling stations nationwide.

“That’s the principle of negotiation. You don’t put the partner, ask them to negotiate under gunpoint.

“The prayers of the NLC is that we go back to status quo, negotiate, think of alternatives and all the effects and how to manage the effects this action is going to have on the people, if it is an action that must take off.

“The subsidy provision has been made up to the end of June. And before then, conscious people, labour management, government, should be able to think of what will happen at the end of June. You don’t start it before the time,” Ajaero said.

On his part, Dele Alake, who spoke on behalf of the Federal Government said the negotiations are ongoing and the parties will reconvene on a yet-to-be defined date.