Why labour suspended strike after meeting Tinubu – TUC president Osifo

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) president, Comrade Festus Osifo, said that the federal government has promised that plans are in place to address their grievances within the next week.

Osifo made this known during an interview with Arise News on Thursday morning after the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and TUC suspended further protests after holding a meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Tinubu’s spokesperson, Dele Alake revealed this late Wednesday following a meeting which the president held with the NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero and TUC’s Osifo at the State House, Abuja.

Osifo while speaking on Arise TV further explained that the Labour Union called off the protest as it has decided to give the government the benefit of a doubt.

“Just as I said earlier, we had a meeting with the President and even before then, there was some level of intervention from the National Assembly with an appeal and also a promise that within the next one week that a lot of things will also be put in place with some positive outcomes,” Osifo stated.

“We had that conversation earlier before we now had a meeting with President Tinubu and from what I have said, the President has committed to saying that okay, we should work with their team and propose something that could be for the wage award and that is he is ready to to offer it almost immediately.

“And from some of the disclosures we also got from the Port Harcourt refinery and the announcement that will also come on Friday associated with the CNG.

“So we now came back to our Secretariat, and we had some sort of conversations across that and we said, okay, let us give them some benefits of doubt.

“Because they kept repeating that ‘we are a new government, we promise and when we promise, we must act’.

“So a communication was released a while ago to our members, calling off the protest and for us to give them some benefits of doubt.”

Osifo also spoke about what line of action the Labour Union would take if in the next seven days, as the government has promised, they don’t get to hear a positive feedback.

“As unions, we don’t just sit down and define this line of actions because we have organs, so this information that the President has given us, we are going to call out our meetings and we will also do the reviews.

“Then after after those reviews, we will wait and watch, when nothing is being done, trust that the two label centres will also meet to take a stand and to also push the government to act.”

Osifo said for this cause, the Labour Union identifies with Nigerians, the working people and they must get government to equally work for the citizens because that is the true essence why government exists.

Meanwhile, Alake said that President Tinubu gave his commitment to the Labour leaders that the Port Harcourt refineries will start production by December 2023.

That would be after the completion of the ongoing rehabilitation contract between NNPCL and Italian firm, Maire Tecnimont SpA.

According to Alake, Tinubu also pleaded with the Labour leaders to support government’s plans to make Nigeria an economically buoyant country.

Present at the meeting with the President alongside the Labour leaders were Alake and NNPCL Group Managing Director, Mr. Mele Kyari.

Earlier on Wednesday, major cities in Nigeria were rocked by protests by the NLC and workers all over the country as a result of the fuel subsidy removal.

Protests were also held due to the delay in providing economic cushions to ameliorate the increase in prices of goods and services across the country.