The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers, and the National Union of Electricity Employees, on Saturday, confirmed that they were mobilising their members to ground the supply of fuel and the national electricity grid from Wednesday in response to the planned mass protest called by the NLC.
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The General Secretary, NUPENG, Afolabi Olawale, told our correspondent, “The congress has taken a unanimous decision and it is mandatory that every affiliate should obey the directive of the Nigeria Labour Congress.”
When probed further to confirm if NUPENG was mobilising its members to halt the lifting of petroleum products, Olawale replied, “That’s it. I’ve given you an answer.”
On their part, electricity workers stated that they would shut the national power grid as it was binding on all employees in the sector to join the mass protest.
The acting General Secretary, NUEE, Dominic Igwebuike, stated, “The NUEE is an affiliate of the NLC and I’ve told you that we will join the strike action.
“The issue is that if there’s a deadlock between labour and the government; that means that the mass protest is still going on, and definitely electricity workers, as an affiliate of the NLC, will partake in the mass protest.
“The issue is that if there’s a deadlock between labour and the government; that means that the mass protest is still going on, and definitely electricity workers, as an affiliate of the NLC, will partake in the mass protest.
“So, all workers in the power sector will join the mass protest on Wednesday, August 2, 2023. It is binding on every staff member to join the strike action. So, if it results in a blackout, the only option is for the government to listen to us if it wants power to return.
“The government should listen to the Nigerian masses who are going through serious suffering right now. That is the only thing we are asking for. So, for now, the protest is going to hold, unless there is a further directive from the NLC.”
The National Deputy President, TUC, Tommy Etim, blasted the government over the lack of seriousness shown so far with regard to the negotiations.
“When we got to the Villa on Friday, we waited for almost two hours at the gate for clearance with no intervention. It was after two hours that we were allowed in. By the time we got to the point of the meeting, we realised that the team representing the government failed to show up. So, it is wrong to actually say labour stormed out of the meeting. How can labour storm out of a meeting that did not hold? We felt very disappointed because we did not expect this from the government,” he said.
The National Executive Council of the NLC had on Friday endorsed the August 2 nationwide strike and mass protests proposed by the body over the recent hike in the pump price of petrol.
However, the Federal Government had told the NLC that it was legally restrained from embarking on the planned nationwide strike due to the ruling of the National Industrial Court, which restrained organised labour from embarking on the strike.
The steering committee members met the government delegation on Wednesday, where the two parties agreed to reconvene on Friday to get a brief from the government’s subcommittees on mass transit, compressed natural gas and cash transfer.
The steering committee was set up by the Federal Government to draw up intervention plans to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal on Nigerians.
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