THE National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has reached a resolution that the Congress should commence a nationwide strike on September 28 to protest the recent increases in fuel prices and electricity tariffs.
Ayuba Wabba, the NLC President disclosed this to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday at the end of the NEC meeting.
Wabba said the planned nationwide strike would go on except the government decides to reduce the pump price of fuel and electricity tariffs before September 28.
The Congress had condemned the timing of the increment and also advised the Federal Government to put the nation’s refineries into operations by revamping them with immediate effect.
It would be recalled that the NLC had threatened to shut down the economy if the Federal Government failed to reverse the recent hike in petrol price and electricity tariffs within 14 days.
This was as the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has also decided to join the NLC in the proposed nationwide strike on September 28.
Quadri Olaleye, the TUC President, in a communique issued after its NEC meeting said, “there is no need for the pains we bear. It is a needless one. They ask us to tighten our belts while they loosen theirs. Services are not rendered yet we are compelled to pay estimated bills.”
“You will recall that this government during its electioneering campaigns in 2014 told the world there is nothing like a subsidy. We were told that they will build refineries, all that is history now. We run a mono-economy and any hike in fuel automatically will have an adverse effect on us yet successive government tow that path because they are not creative, Olaleye said.
He added that about eight states in Nigeria were yet to commence the payment of the new minimum wage signed into law since April 18.
“We have written letters to the governors and also engaged them in dialogue but all to no avail. Sometimes we wonder if these people have a conscience at all,” he said.
“The Congress hereby appeals to all Nigerians to get ready for the unprecedented mass action against corruption, obnoxious policies, rape and other violent offences, breach of Collective Agreement, unemployment.”
He called on the United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany and Spain, to support their ‘struggle by placing indefinite VISA ban on political leaders whose stock in trade is to loot and impoverish the masses and the country’.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94