Fuel Subsidy: FG, Labour to Conclude Negotiation in Eight Weeks

•Set up presidential committee to work on demands

•Reconvenes next Monday 

•Court reiterates order halting NLC, TUC’s planned strike 

•NEC to recommend salary increment, palliative measures for Nigerians, says Bauchi governor

Deji Elumoye, Alex Enumah in Abuja and Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

The federal government and organised labour as represented by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), yesterday, agreed on an eight- week deadline to resolve all contentious issues and implement the resolutions arising from the demands of labour over recent removal of fuel subsidy by government.

This emerged just as Justice Olufunke Anuwe of the Abuja division of the National Industrial Court yesterday, reiterated that her order of June 5, restraining the NLC and TUC from embarking on their planned industrial action remains in force.

Also, yesterday, Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, said the committee set up by the National Economic Council (NEC) to recommend the mode of distribution of the palliative for subsidy removal would work for the collective interest of Nigerians.

After President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy upon his inauguration on May 29, the organised labour had threatened to go on strike, alleging that the government did not put in place the measures to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal.

To avert the strike, the federal government quickly convened a meeting with labour where demands that would serve as palliatives were made and the two parties agreed to meet again on June 19.

At yesterday’s meeting, the federal government and the leadership of the NLC and the TUC agreed that all the issues and demands raised should be concluded within eight weeks.

The two parties also set up a Presidential Steering Committee to serve as a clearing house in coordinating the technical sub-committees on different items raised.

Briefing newsmen at the end of the meeting held at the Conference room of the Chief of Staff office at the State House, Abuja, TUC President, Festus Osifo, in the company of his NLC counterpart, Joe Ajaero, said the parties would reconvene next Monday, to review the framework marshalled out.

He said, “We have concluded our meeting, if you remember very well the last time that we were here that labour, TUC, NLC met with government about two weeks ago, we agreed that we are going to reconvene today, that is the 19th of June, we just reconvened, we had a meeting although brief.

“The purpose of the meeting today is actually to put together the framework, what we submitted as our demand, how will they be delivered and so we are looking at those framework, government came with what they think will work, we also made some input. From this night, we are going to continue the work in order to have that framework together.

“We agreed that anything we are putting together we are going to conclude everything in eight weeks. Everything must be rolled out within that time not something that we are going to leave endlessly.

“They have submitted the framework to us, we have looked at it, we have made input to, this night we will continuously work on it in order for us to come up with the deliverables.

“If you look at the communique that was signed in our last meeting, there are some action items in the communique. So it’s actually how will these action items will be delivered. For example, we need to have a Presidential Steering Committee that will have to oversee everything.

“We also need to have Technical sub-committees because if we talk about the issue of CNG, we need experts, the issue of CNG you need those people that are willing to invest, the issue of CNG, you need the national oil company, the NNPCL to come up what they need to do and the time with which they are going to deliver.

“There are some technicalities that are required beyond this meeting, so those technical committees will be subsumed into Presidential committees but all these we must conclude everything maximum in eight weeks.

“So those technical committees, some will submit their reports in one week, when they submit in one week, we implement, when they submit in two weeks we will implement but the last should not exceed eight weeks.

“The terms of reference of these committees are going to be agreed on between today and tomorrow. We are looking at five broad technical committees that will be subsumed into Presidential Steering Committee. There must be timelines in these terms of reference but maximum should not exceed eight weeks. By next week Monday, we will be here again, same time.”

Also speaking, the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication and Strategies, Dele Alake, said the meeting considered the short term, medium term and long term measures in resolving the issue with government.

According to him, “We reconvened today, both parties went through this list and we tipped off the viable ones, those things are broken into three categories. The immediate, those that can be of low hanging fruit in the short term, the medium term and the long term.

“So those list of demands in terms of implementation and execution fall into those three broad categories of short, medium and long term categories. So that’s what we decided today and other meetings will still be held in order to cross the t’s and dot the i’s.

“One group has been constituted at today’s meeting, there is a steering committee that will be like a clearing house, there are other groups set up comprising both parties, government and labour members and these groups will work together very harmoniously and efficiently to arrive at the final resolution of all these demands and what we call interventions.”

Others present at yesterday’s meeting which lasted for barely one hour were the delegation of the NLC, led by Ajaero; the delegation of the TUC led by Osifo; the Chief of Staff to the President, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila; Special Adviser to the President on Revenue, Zachaeus Adedeji and the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Kachallom Daju.

Others were the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Mele Kyari and the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe, among others.

 Court Reiterates Order Halting NLC, TUC’s Planned Strike

 Meanwhile, Justice Olufunke Anuwe of the Abuja division of the National Industrial Court yesterday, reiterated that her order of June 5, restraining labour from embarking on their planned industrial action remains in force.

Accordingly, Justice Anuwe ordered parties to maintain status quo while adjourning hearing in the matter till July 20.

Following an application by the federal government, the court had on June 5, issued an order halting the organised labour from proceeding on a nationwide industrial action over the recent removal of fuel subsidy.

The court while ordering the service of its order as well as court processes on the defendants, fixed June 19, for hearing in the substantive matter.  However, when the case was called, federal government’s lawyer, Mr. Ochum Emmanuel, told the court that he was prepared for the hearing of his client’s motion on notice as earlier scheduled.

The suit is seeking for an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the defendants from embarking on a nationwide strike earlier slated for June 7.

But counsel to the defendants, Mr. Marshall Abubakar, drew the court’s attention to an application he filed on behalf of the NLC and TUC, praying the court to set aside its order of June 5, restraining them from embarking on strike.

Abubakar further submitted that the claimant was served the application on June 8, only for them to turn around and serve on them a counter-affidavit on Monday in court.

 He added that the claimant filed the counter-affidavit on June 16 and instructed the bailiff not to serve them until in court yesterday.

However, following discrepancies over the service of the court processes the matter was adjourned to July 20, for parties to resolve the issue.

Besides, the court directed the defendants to enter their memorandum of appearance and instructed parties to maintain status quo.

President Bola Tinubu while delivering his inaugural speech had announced the removal of fuel subsidy. The announcement had led to an astronomical increase in pump price of fuel from around N195.00 to between N560 and N660 across the country.

In response, the organised labour had mobilised its members for a showdown with the government but could not proceed because of the order of the court.

NEC Will Recommend Salary Increment, Palliative Measures for Nigerians, Says Bauchi Gov

Relatedly, Mohammed has said the Committee set up by NEC to recommend the mode of distribution of the palliative for subsidy removal would work for the collective interest of Nigerians.

The governor who is the representative of North-east sub-region in the committee made the commitment while interacting with journalists in Bauchi.

Mohammed said members of the committee under the headship of Kebbi State Governor, Dr. Nasiru Idris, were resolute in recommending fair modalities for judicious distribution of palliative to all the relevant sectors affected by the subsidy removal regardless of political party differences.

“Both opposition and the ruling APC Governors understood that the move by the federal government was a step in the right direction and therefore assured that the process would not be politicised,” Mohammed said.

According to him, the NEC and representatives of trade and labour unions acknowledged the fact that subsidy removal which has advantage and challenges, subjected Nigerians especially common citizens into untold hardship hence the move to alleviate the suffering.

“Government and organised labour understood that the move has brought about benefit and challenges that was why right steps are being taken in that direction,” the governor added.

On the areas that needed urgent government intervention, Mohammed said the committee would recommend increase of salaries of workers, procurement of shuttle buses in large quantity as well as introduction of various intervention programmes across the country using the revenue generated from the subsidy removal.