Fed Govt begs labour to drop strike option

The Federal Government has appealed to labour and civil society organizations (CSO) to end the nationwide strike over removal of petrol subsidy.

Minister of Information, Labaran Maku who spoke yesterday after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting said State Governments have been advised to engage in negotiations with labour.

He said: “The Federal government remains engaged in the process of dialogue with labour, we have never dismissed the process of dialogue. Even before the full deregulation was announced, Mr. President discussed with labour leaders, we discussed with the NLC, TUC, and we discussed with other stakeholders outside labour knowing that this key economic policy will affect the general population.

“We have never closed our doors to negotiations or discussions with labour or any other social group that is involved in the current protest, what is very clear to us is that government is taking up its responsibilities at the Federal level. State governments are engaged in direct discussions with trade unions as well as civil society groups.

“In some states we have noticed some progress in the ongoing dialogue between the state governments’ and labour and civil society groups. So the federal government as far as we are concerned the process of dialogue is continuous.

“But we will continue to appeal because this protest is only adding more pain to the people of Nigeria and in some places we are also beginning to see that elements outside labour are already virtually in the forefront and this is creating a lot of security problems in some states. You saw the situation in Kaduna, Edo state, etc.

“We are appealing to labour to drop this option of protest which is increasing the pains out there for the people. It is our believe that anything that cannot be achieved through discussion will not really be useful when you call the general population to the streets.

“So we are appealing to Nigerians, civil society organisations, and labour to understand that we believe that this option that has been taken is adding more pains to our people and we hope that in the days ahead, they will see reason and drop the protest and continue the process of dialogue.

“This issue of deregulation is not an option that the government arrived at in comfort or happiness. It is something that has been reviewed over a year and a half”, he said.

The Minister explained that the FEC meeting discussed the fundamental issue of performance, as it relates to government agencies and their leadership.

“The meeting focused essentially on the presentation by the minister of National Planning relating to the implementation of our projects and the results expected for 2012. Project implementation strategy and the transformation programme and what we must do from this year to ensure we begin to mark down goals and get the results as planned.

“This is the year that we expect every Minister; every MDA to give account of themselves in terms of what our various MDAs intends to put out”.








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