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Strike�ll be total,
indefinite � NLC
�Gives Sunday deadline to
FG � TUC prepares
�Reps urges Labour to shelve
action
By Uwakwe Abugu (Warri)
Bassey Udo (Abuja)
and
Victor Ebimomi
(Lagos)
Corporate Nigeria may return
to strike chaos on Monday unless the government accedes to demands by
Labour that fuel prices be reversed to the pre-September 23 levels. Abuja
has up to midnight Sunday to stave it off.
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)
President Adams Oshiomhole told journalists at the end of its National
Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in the federal capital late Tuesday
night that the action this time would be �indefinite and total mass
protest� until the government yields ground.
The meeting reviewed the last
four-day warning strike, expressed satisfaction that it was effective
nationally and urging Nigerians to keep faith.
Acknowledging the enormous
cost the strike has imposed on the economy as well as the inconvenience to
Nigerians, Oshiomhole said Labour had to embark on it because �we did not
have any viable alternative in the face of the government that is dialogue
shy�.
He reiterated its position
that the issue could have been resolved through dialogue if a willing
partner were there in the government and that it was because of that
conviction the NLC resolved
to participate in the Palliative Committee set up to consider
measures to cushion the effects of the prices.
However, Labour is convinced
that �participating in efforts aimed at merely dealing with the
consequences, rather than the cause of endless upward price adjustments�
would not serve its interest, he said, insisting that the only way to
break away from the vicious circle is for stakeholders to find a lasting
solution that would guarantee stable prices as well as protect the
economy.
Oshiomhole insisted that if
the demands by the NLC for prices to be reverted are not met, the mass
protest would resume.
�The pain is on and the
consequences of the increase are biting. Life is becoming more and more
unbearable. We hope the President would be able to sort out the issues on
Sunday when the coalition is to meet in Lagos. If by that time the issues
are not resolved satisfactorily, the coalition would announce the date of
the second phase of the general strike and mass
protest�.
Labour would not be tired to
sustain the �struggle for justice and fairness, to get the government to
listen to the cries of the people until we achieve our result. If we do
not stand up to the challenge of fighting for economic justice, Nigerians
might begin to take laws into their hands, and this crisis could
degenerate into ways that could become unmanageable.
�We hope that the Federal
Government would appreciate that it is the welfare of the Nigerian people
that must be the ultimate objective of government social economic
policies. Not any other consideration.
�I appeal to Mr. President to
consider that those who are pushing toward rightwing policies in his
government are people who, politically, are not accountable to anyone.
They are people without political constituencies. They are not known to
Nigerians. These people would take their flight if things collapse,
because they have a second home. This is the time for him to demonstrate
the compassion that he talked about the day he inaugurated the Ibrahim
Mantu committee�.
Beating the same drum in
Lagos, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), the umbrella body for
Senior Staff Associations, met for hours on Wednesday to deliberate on its
participation in the strike.
Its General Secretary John
Kolawole, though declined to give details of the level of involvement,
disclosed that the meeting was convened to plan for the action.
He lamented that the
government still has to force Labour back to the trenches because of its
hard stance on the demands.
Kolawole chided Abuja for
shirking its responsibilities and invariably subjecting the masses to
hardship over a product in which the country is a major
producer.
According to him, despite the
deregulation of the oil sector, the government still has vital roles to
play to ensure that the policy does not suffer, but that the government
has failed to do so.
�Deregulation does not mean
that the government has no role to play. It is the NNPC (Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation) that is
even selling to the marketers now, so there is a way it can be done
to ensure that the people do not suffer. The fate of the Nigerians cannot
be perpetually left in the hands of the independent marketers. We are not
interested in coup, chaos or anarchy, we are just concerned that the
government has to live up to its responsibilities�, he
said.
However, the House of
Representatives has appealed to the NLC to shelve the
strike
House Speaker Aminu Bello
Masari said in Warri on Wednesday that he and his colleagues are �doing a
lot of things� to resolve the impasse.
He spoke at the first in-house
training for the Gas Resources Committee members of the House.
�We are working on the whole thing
and my appeal to Labour is to suspend the idea of going on strike again.
It won�t help anybody; we are doing a lot of things. We are doing
something now and to disclose it is to pre-empt any decision to be taken�,
Masari stated.
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