Representatives of civil society unions yesterday staged a walkout from the first meeting of the independent committee set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to finetune measures to cushion the effects of the frequent hike in the prices of petroleum products.
The president of the Kaduna based Civil Rights Congress who is also a member of the committee, Comrade Shehu Sani, told journalists that the civil society pulled out because the opening remarks of the chairman of the committee, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, clearly “rubbished” the expectations of civil society which thought that the committee will focus on measures that will bring to an end, the frequent indu-strial crisis resulting from fuel price hikes.
Comrade Uba Sani explained that the sitting arrangement at the meeting rather than reflect equal status of all members of the committee inferred that representatives of labour and civil society were told that they will be briefed by government officials.
The civil society representatives pulled out of the meeting following the statement of the deputy Senate president, Ibrahim Mantu, who as the chairman of the committee, said the meeting is not to negotiate with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and repeatedly called on the NLC to call off the ongoing strike.
“This is not a body for discussions with labour. It is not a forum for negotiations between government and labour, but it is a body to workout a way forward,” Mantu explained.
At the end of the meeting which lasted over four hours, a resolution that reads as follows was issued: “The comm-ittee resolved to discuss all issues including current and future prices of petroleum products and a mechanism for achieving stability in prices and request organised labour... to suspend the strike and call on workers to return to work.”
The meeting had the attendance of the ministers of finance, labour, information and women affairs as well as the representatives of the NNPC, PPPRA, NLC and other stakeholders.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), has called on the coalition of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the civil society groups to stay away from the 33-man committee set-up by President Olusegun Oba-sanjo to fashion out ways to cushion the effects of fuel price hike, saying it is merely executive haughtiness and deceit of the highest order.
The NBA in a statement made available to Daily Trust entitled “No to presidential red-herring,” signed by its Ikeja, Lagos, branch chairman, Barrister Adekunle Ojo, described the committee as a smack of mischief and blackmail.
The text of the NBA stat-ement read in part; “The 33 man committee, shows more than anything else that the government who pretended to be interested in having dialogue with labour over the strike was at all times determ-ined to have its way over the unpopular fuel price hike.”
The statement urged the labour and civil society groups to maintain their position that the federal government should reverse the new fuel prices to the old regime.
According to the NBA, Nigerians have no time for dubious committees which are targeted at rubber stam-ping the wicked, cruel and insensitive fuel price hikes.
The statement added that no such committee has worked before and also no palliatives have been given before.
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