Strike: Governors set up committee to meet FG, labour over petrol price, electricity tariff hikes

Governors of the 36 states of the federation on Thursday resolved to set up a committee to interface with the Federal Government and organised labour over disputes arising from the recent hike in electricity tariff and pump price of petrol.

The committee is headed by the Jigawa State governor, Badaru Abubakar.

Other members of the committee are governors Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq (Kwara), Inuwa Yahaya (Gombe), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), and Douye Diri (Bayelsa).

The governors revealed this in a communiqué issued at the end of their emergency virtual meeting held on Thursday.

They appealed to labour to shelve the proposed nationwide strike slated to commence on September 28.

In the communiqué signed by the Vice-Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Aminu Tambuwal, the governors said any strike action now could worsen the already bad economic situation in the country.

The meeting, according to the communiqué, addressed two key issues – the planned industrial action by labour and the deduction for local governments’ allocation to fund the construction of primary healthcare centres in each of the 774 local government areas in the country.

It read: “On the call for a national strike action by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the forum (NGF) believes that the labour unions should exercise caution on the call for a strike action, noting that any strike action will worsen the currently deteriorating economic situation of the country brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“While expressing concern over the call for a national strike action by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), forum members suggested the provision of a cushioning arrangement to ameliorate the effect of subsidy removal.

“Governors confirmed, during the meeting that the National Industrial Court had barred labour from embarking on its planned industrial action, but nevertheless, decided to use the intervening period to mediate between the stakeholders.”

“The meeting also resolved to set up a committee, made up of the Governors of Jigawa, Nasarawa, Ogun, Kwara, Gombe, Abia, and Bayelsa States to interface with the National Economic Council (NEC), the labour unions, and relevant stakeholders in the overall interest of the nation.”

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