"
He added: "We are under a democracy and one of the tenets of democracy is freedom of association, so this government will never prevent civil society from freely associating. The only thing that Mr. President and the National Assembly has done is to say the time has come under democracy to democratise relationships not force anybody to be in a union` against his or her own wish.
"The law that was done under the military made it compulsory whether you like it or not, to belong to a Labour union.
"Under a democracy, that law is unconstitutional. You have freedom of association. That is what we want to do. What we are saying is that let Nigerians who are in Labour unions freely associate.
"That law, as existed under Obasanjo as military head of state is undemocratic and unconstitutional. Now, under this dispensation, you are free to associate and if they still want to do it in the present way, they are free to do so," he said.
On the fuel crisis, he appealed to the Labour and civil society leaders to work together for the development of the country.
"One person cannot solve the problem of Nigeria. We need each other, government, Labour, civil society, oil marketers, everybody. That is how we can move Nigeria forward. NNPC (the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) alone cannot serve us. The Nigerian economy is too big for the NNPC to be the only importers of fuel. So, we need the other importers," he said.
President of TUC, Mrs. Peace Obiajulu, commenting on the bill sent by President Obasanjo to the National Assembly at a news conference in Lagos, said: "I expected the President to wait for the outcome of the National Labour Advisory Committee set up to work out an authentic Labour law for the country." Obasanjo, on June 8, sent a bill to the National Assembly seeking an amendment to the Trade Unions Act.
The measure, the President said, was "to promote the democratisation of Labour, further strengthen it, and enhance choice for all Nigerian workers in the true spirit of the constitution."
It would also "comply with International Labour Organisation (ILO) requirements concerning democratisation in the organisation of Labour unions and centres, and consolidate the values of accountability and participation," he said.
Obiajulu said although the TUC had always wanted Nigeria to practise the ILO convention of multiple Labour centres in the country, this was not the way to go about it.
She said: "To say that for any Labour centre to be registered, it must have the consent of the Labour Minister, is not democratisation.
"The TUC is asking for democratisation where real democracy exists. Allow people to operate freely just as the constitution has allowed people to operate.
"If workers want to come together, we should be allowed to come together, after all Ghana's labour centre is democratised but they have only one, while South Africa is also democratised but has three centres."
She said if government truly wanted Labour democratised, it would have removed Section 33 and 35 from the Labour Act. The sections list the NLC as the only labour centre and disallowed senior staff from being affiliated to the Congress.
Obiajulu urged the government to always include all stakeholders in evolving any policy.
She said: "Now, they have said the oil marketers and government had reached an agreement that the marketers should review the prices of petroleum products downward as prices have fallen in the international market.
"Why were all stakeholders not at the meeting
