Update: The Intrigues That Suspended The Workers’ Strike |The Source

By Uche Mbah

Details of the intrigues that resulted in the suspension of the strike organized by the Labour unions are beginning to trickle in as some key stakeholders are opening up on the issue.

The suspension, which became public knowledge at about 2.45am, Monday, took  conventional  Newspapers by surprise. Most of them had already gone to bed with the story that the strike will hold, following the hardline stance of the Union leaders who gave the impression  the strike was unstoppable.

The leaders of the Nigerian labor unions had called off the strike scheduled to protest recent increase  in both the  price of Petrol and the tariff for electricity being  faced with “choices between stark realities and legitimate follower  expectations,” Chief executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC,  said.

This Magazine had reported that the decision was made to suspend the strike after the government temporarily suspended the planned hike in electricity tariff. Meanwhile, Nigerians have mostly migrated to the new tariff using the new migratory code provided by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN. It is not clear how they will now effectively police the suspension, which is for two weeks, until the panel set up for the investigation of conflicting reports on the hike sort things out 

It is likely that the status quo will be maintained after the next two weeks.

“Being a former Union leader, I understand the difficulties of Labour leadership when faced with choices between stark realities and legitimate follower expectations.

“The leadership chose the pursuit of common good and posterity will vindicate us all for standing with our country,” Mele Kyari the CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) wrote on his twitter handle on Monday.

But the Minister of Labor, Chris Ngige said the resolution reached was an outcome of a fruitful deliberation, according to reports by the News agency of Nigeria, NAN.

On the issue of electricity tariff reforms, he said that the parties agreed to set up a Technical Committee comprising Ministries, Departments, Agencies, NLC and TUC, which will work for a duration of two weeks effective from Monday, September 28.

 “The committee is to examine the justifications for the new policy in view of the need for the validation of the basis for the new cost-reflective tariff.

“The technical committee membership included Festus Keyamo, Minister of State Labour and Employment, as chairman, Godwin Jedy-Agba, Minister of State Power, James Momoh, Chairman National Electricity Regulatory Commission, “Others were Ahmad Rufai Zakari, SA to Mr President on Infrastructure, Onoho’Omhen Ebhohimhen, Member, NLC, Joe Ajaero NLC, Chris Okonkwo, TUC, and a representative of DISCOS.”

 The Minister said the the committee should also look at the different Electricity Distribution Company (DISCOs) and their different electricity tariff ‘vis-à-vis NERC’s order and mandate. Ngige, on the issue of the downstream sector deregulation, said all parties agreed on the need to expand the local refining capacity of the nation to reduce the over-dependency on importation of petroleum products.

 He said NNPC was directed to expedite the rehabilitation of the nation’s four refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna and to achieve 50 percent completion for Port Harcourt by December 2021, while timelines and delivery for Warri and Kaduna will be established by the inclusive Steering Committee.

According to him, the national leadership of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) will be integrated into the Steering Committee already established by the Corporation.

“The Federal Government and its agencies are to ensure delivery of one million CNG/LPG AutoGas conversion kits, storage skids, and dispensing units under the Nigeria Gas Expansion Programme by December 2021 to enable the delivery of cheaper transportation and power fuel.

“A Governance Structure that will include representatives of organized Labour shall be established for timely delivery,” he said.

Ngige also said on the issue of general intervention that the government will facilitate the removal of tax on minimum wage as a way of cushioning the impacts of the policy on the lowest vulnerable. He said the Federal Government would give the labor unions 133 CNG/LPG driven mass transit buses immediately and ‘provide to the major cities across the Country on a scale-up basis, thereafter to all States and Local Governments before December 2021.’ He said 10 percent of the ongoing Ministry of Housing and Finance housing initiative would be allocated to Nigerian workers under the NLC and TUC.

According to Ngige, a specific amount is to be unveiled by the Federal Government in two weeks’ time, which will be isolated from the Economic Sustainability Programme Intervention Fund that can be accessed by Nigerian Workers with subsequent provision for 240,000 under the auspices of NLC and TUC.

“This is for participation in agricultural ventures through the CBN and the Ministry of Agriculture. The timeline will be fixed at the next meeting,” he said.

 In his remark, Mr Ayuba Wabba, NLC President said that both the government and organized labor have looked into the issue of fuel price hike and what was needed to be put in place in order to address the issue of the increase.

“We have discussed the state of our refineries and how to achieve sustainable refineries. “We have also looked at the issue of the tariff hike and other challenges. “We agreed to suspend the strike, and we agreed to also put a committee in place to work outlasting solutions in addressing these challenges, including the issue of metering and importantly also is to bring about the issue of efficiency.

“We also reviewed the process of privatization and other issues such as clear palliatives that were needed to be extended to our members and Nigerians to cushion the effect of these policies,” he said. Wabba, therefore, called for social dialogue as a way of addressing issues of industrial relations, socio-economic issues, and also issues of development. According to him, the labor hopes that the communique will be implemented, and therefore, the decision of the organized labor as represented here is to suspend the action.

 “We are going to convey our Central Working Committee meeting to present the communique to them,” he said. Also, Quadiri Olaleye, TUC president noted that based on the agreement signed between the government and the labor, the planned industrial action would be suspended for two weeks. He added that the planned industrial action was called to draw the attention of the government to certain issues.”

Meanwhile, indications are that a major reason the oil price was not broached was because of the fear of the reactions from the International Monetary Funds, IMF, which is strongly in support of the deregulation of the downstream sector of the Petroleum  industry.