The president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, says the Congress will determine whether to continue with its fuel subsidy protest after a meeting on Thursday.
Ajaero said this on Wednesday after talks with President Bola Tinubu at State House in Abuja.
His meeting with the president took place after widespread nationwide demonstrations by a coalition of labor unions across Nigeria earlier in the day.
The NLC president disclosed that he would take the points raised by President Tinubu to his colleagues who would sit down, talk, and determine organized labor’s next action.
“The issues are the same issues that led to the protest today. He (President Tinubu) has expressed his position and made some commitments which we have taken side-by-side with what the National Assembly said,” Ajaero told State House correspondents.
“And we are taking it back to the office with our colleagues to review it and release a document on our next line of action.”
Ajaero said he could neither personally call off the protests nor press for their continuation.
“No one person can call it off, that’s why I said we’ll go back to the office so that the EXCO (Executive Committee) looks at it, and by tomorrow the NLC will have equally their NEC meeting to look at the bigger picture,” he said.
The NLC and its affiliate unions are demonstrating against the federal government’s discontinuation of petrol subsidy without adequate palliatives to support Nigerians.
On Monday, President Tinubu announced a list of measures to buoy the economy and ease the sufferings of Nigerians who have seen petrol prices increase by more than 200 percent with an attendant rise in inflation.
But organized labor says the measures do not help the plight of everyday Nigerians.
Labor leaders are pushing for a strong commitment from the government to increase the national minimum wage.
They also want the government to revive Nigeria’s public refineries, punish petrol subsidy thieves, and reel out palliatives that directly affect Nigerians.
