Finally, FG Agree On Transport, Food Prices
The Federal Government and Organised Labour reached a significant agreement yesterday aimed at reducing transport fares and the prices of essential commodities, particularly foodstuffs.
This development comes as the House of Representatives urged the government to reverse the recent petrol price hike and implement immediate measures to stabilize prices for petrol and cooking gas.
They proposed targeted interventions, including temporary price relief measures, tax reductions, or subsidies on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for low-income households.
Following a meeting held in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, it was decided that another meeting would be convened with state governors to ensure the nationwide implementation of the new minimum wage of ₦70,000, effective October.
Sources from the meeting revealed that the government and Labour also agreed to continue engaging in discussions to improve the previously strained relationship between the two parties.
“Government promised to release over 2,000 Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, conversion kits in the first instance. It also promised to release 45 CNG buses to Labour to complete the 90 earlier promised organised labour.
“As part of efforts at crashing transport fares across the country, the Federal Government will hold a meeting with state governors to fully embrace the CNG buses.
This will also affect the cost of foodstuffs as it will reduce the costs of transporting food items from different locations to consumers drastically. These are parts of efforts to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal on the citizens.
“The government also promised to summon a meeting of the economic council to impress it upon state governors to ensure the new minimum wage takes off across the country this month.
“It also promised to incorporate labour into the economic council, so labour will participate and monitor economic policies of government, instead of government throwing policies at labour and Nigerians that may result in agitation or protest.
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“They agreed that it is better to ‘jaw-jaw than war-war’, meaning, there will be continuous dialogue between government and labour.
“The government also promised to hasten and complete the refineries. They said almost five refineries are about to be completed,’’ a source told Vanguard last night.
The sources equally said “government promised to pay all outstanding arrears and wage awards to workers and inaugurate all the boards labour has representatives.”
One of the sources said “all these are promises, but the good thing is that it was agreed that the meeting will be a continuous process.”
Another source also said the issue of government not honouring agreement was raised, adding that government admitted that it did not do well in that regard and promised to change.
Asked if labour was satisfied with the meeting, the source said: “It is not about satisfaction but a way forward from the past where government was not discussing with organised labour.
‘’If this trend or practice continues, there is every possibility that disagreements between government and labour will reduce.”
The joint National Executive Council, NEC, meeting between the two Labour centres, NLC and TUC, he said, was to brief members about the outcome of the meeting with government.
Recall that among government’s representatives at the meeting were Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, NSA; Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, Labour Minister; and Wale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy.
Others include Alhaji Mohammed Idris, Information Minister; Heineken Lokpobiri, Petroleum Resources Minister, Ekperikpe Ekpo, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), and representatives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL.
Also present at the joint meeting were the President of NLC, Mr Joe Ajaero; Deputy President, Kabiru Ado Sani; the General Secretary, Mr Emma Ugboaja; Deputy President of the TUC, Dr. Tommy Etim Okon; the Secretary General, Nuhu Toro; and the President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, who is also a deputy president of NLC.
There’ll be continuous engagement with labour — FG
Addressing newsmen at the end of the meeting, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris said the Federal Government will continue to engage with organized labour and not wait until there was tension on any issue before doing so.
Fielding questions on whether the meeting with the labour had anything to do with minimum wage, the minister said: “These are just general discussions. Government is always desirous of engaging with Labour, this is one of such engagements.
‘’We will continue to interact with them. We won’t wait until there is tension about anything before we engage Labour.
“This is a renewed commitment on behalf of government to continue to engage Labour on a number of issues. These engagements have been very fruitful and we will continue to engage with them.”
On what was discussed at the meeting, Idris said: “A lot of things were discussed. But like I said, this is work in progress, this is something that isn’t a one-off thing, but we have not reached anything that we think we can tell Nigerians now, but what is more important is that, there is going to be continuous engagement between us and labour for the good of the country.”
Asked if the meeting had to do with the recent hike in fuel price, he said: “This is our continuous engagement with labour for the good of the country. You know that labour is an important component of this country, all of them are our brothers and sisters.
‘’Government is there for everyone, including labour, so we will continue to engage labour for the good of the country.”
