Labour calls off nationwide protests, to give FG benefits of doubts

The Federal Government has announced that Organised Labour has agreed to call off its one-day nationwide protest on the removal of petrol subsidy to allow the government to work on fulfilling its promises.

This was announced by the Presidency, in a statement after a meeting the leaders of the unions met with President Bola Tinubu at the presidential villa, Abuja on Wednesday evening. The labour leaders were led to the meeting by Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and Festus Osifo, President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

The statement said the labour leaders agreed to suspend their strike after the president promised that the Port Harcourt refinery will commence operations in December 2023.

The labour and other affiliate unions had embarked on protests across the country over the hardship caused by some recent policies of the federal government.

Osifo later told the media that labour leaders have decided to give the federal government the benefit of the doubt.

He added that organised labour asked the president to delegate a representative to negotiate with the union on the promises made by the federal government.

“We had a meeting with the president. Even before then, there was some level of intervention from the national assembly with appeal and promise that within one week, a lot of things will be put in place,” he told Arise TV.

“The president has committed and he said we should work with his team to propose something that could be for the wage award and that he is ready to offer it almost immediately.

“We came back to our secretariat and had some conversations. We now say let’s give them some benefit of the doubt.

“They kept repeating that they are a new government. A communication was released to our members to call off the protest for us to give them some benefit of the doubt.

“We don’t have any problem with the chief of staff personally, but we felt that the chief of staff is extremely busy, so the president should give us someone who will be ready and available so we can dispense with all these as soon as possible,” he said.