Labour to Shutdown Airport as Pilots, Aviation Workers Join Strike

* CSO backs NLC strike   

* Says Tinubu should end corruption not subsidy 

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The National Union of Air Transport Employees Association of Nigeria (NUATE) and National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) have confirmed that their members will join the two-day warning strike declared by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. 

In a letter addressed to all its branches nationwide, the unions directed them to join the NLC warning strike.

In the letter signed by General Secretaries of NUATE, Ocheme Abah; ANAP, Abdul Rasaq Said and NAAPE, Comrade Umoh Ofonime, the unions said: “Accordingly, as affiliates of the NLC, all the state councils and branches of the above named trade union are directed to fully join the state councils of the NLC in all the states on September 5th and 6th for the warning strike. Aviation workers are hereby directed to stay at home during these periods,” the unions said.

Meanwhile, the United Action Front of Civil Society (UAFCS) has declared total support for the two-day warning strike declared by the NLC in protest against the untold hardship in the country foisted on the people by the removal of fuel subsidy, as well as its concomitant arbitrary hike in the price of premium motor spirit (PMS).In a statement signed by the Head

, National Coordinating Centre, UAFCS, Wale Okunniyi, the CSO described the subsidy removal  palliatives as another device of the ruling class to fleece impoverished Nigerians.

The coalition said the warning strike, which is slated to begin on Tuesday, September 5, has become highly inevitable in the light of the emerging realities, which have clearly shown that government is being deceptive and mercurial with its fuel subsidy removal regime, which has been characterised by flip flopping and  uncertainty.

“The leadership of the organised civil society therefore wishes to unequivocally decry these mindless policies of the Federal Government, which have further pushed millions of households that were hitherto managing to cope with their meagre incomes, below poverty line, therefore compelling our patriotic call on Nigerians in the public and private sectors to team up with the NLC in demanding the reversal of the asphyxiating policies being implemented unilaterally without justification or any concrete economic plan beyond making Nigerians to pay for the corrupt mismanagement of the subsidy scheme, which incidentally has been admitted by government itself.

“We also wish to reiterate that the so-called palliatives for the fuel subsidy removal being financed through a World Bank loan to be paid back with interest by the Nigerian people, is another device by the ruling class to further fleece the already pauperised masses of the country in continuation of the culture of profligacy through which the Buhari administration plunged Nigeria into debt being serviced by over 90 per cent of the nation’s revenue. 

“Rather than further push Nigeria deeper into bankruptcy; considering the fact that our foreign reserve is currently below four billion dollars, which marks the worse downturn in the history of the country’s economy, the Tinubu regime should be demanding accountability from those who mismanaged the fuel importation regime and depleted Nigeria’s foreign reserve to an abysmal level,” the coalition said.   

It said that the Tinubu administration clearly has no reasonable justification for insisting on arbitrary fuel price hike when those who pilfered the national treasury in the name of subsidy payment are walking the streets of Nigeria free; with some of them still calling the shot in the present administration. 

“We make bold to challenge the Tinubu government to demand