FG and Labour Agree On Modalities To Lower Transport Fares, Food Price

Reported by Ayooluwa Afolabi

The Federal Government and Organised Labour, yesterday, agreed on modalities to crash transport fares and prices of essential commodities, especially foodstuffs.

This came on a day the House of Representatives asked the Federal Government to reverse the recent petrol price hike and immediately stabilize petrol and cooking gas prices through targeted interventions, such as temporary price relief measures, tax reductions, or subsidies on LPG for low-income households.

Rising from the meeting held in the Office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, SGF, last night, the government also agreed to summon a meeting with state governors to ensure the N70,000 new minimum wage fully commenced nationwide in October.

According to Vanguard, sources at the meeting said, among others, the government and Labour also agreed to continue engagement and discussions to thaw the frosty relationship that had existed before now.

“The government promised to release over 2,000 Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, conversion kits in the first instance. It also pledged to release 45 CNG buses to Labour to complete the 90 earlier promised organized labor.

“As part of efforts at crashing transport fares across the country, the Federal Government will hold a meeting with state governors to fully embrace the CNG buses.

This will also affect the cost of foodstuffs as it will reduce the costs of transporting food items from different locations to consumers drastically. These are parts of efforts to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal on the citizens.

“The government also promised to summon a meeting of the economic council to impress it upon state governors to ensure the new minimum wage takes off across the country this month.

“It also promised to incorporate labour into the economic council, so labour will participate and monitor economic policies of the government, instead of the government throwing policies at labour and Nigerians that may result in agitation or protest.

“They agreed that it is better to ‘jaw-jaw than war-war’, meaning, there will be continuous dialogue between government and labour.

“The government also promised to hasten and complete the refineries. They said almost five refineries are about to be completed,’’ a source said last night, Vanguard reported.

The sources equally said, “government promised to pay all outstanding arrears and wage awards to workers and inaugurate all the board\'s labour representatives.”

One of the sources said, “All these are promises, but the good thing is that it was agreed that the meeting will be a continuous process.”

Another source also said the issue of the government not honoring the agreement was raised, adding that the government admitted that it did not do well in that regard and promised to change.

Asked if Labour was satisfied with the meeting, the source said: “It is not about satisfaction but a way forward from the past where the government was not discussing with organized labour.

‘’If this trend or practice continues, there is every possibility that disagreements between government and labour will reduce.”

The joint National Executive Council, NEC, meeting between the two Labour centers, NLC and TUC, he said, was to brief members about the outcome of the meeting with the government.

Among the government’s representatives at the meeting were Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, NSA; Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, the Labour Minister; and Wale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy.

Others include Alhaji Mohammed Idris, Information Minister; Heineken Lokpobiri, Petroleum Resources Minister, Ekperikpe Ekpo, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), and representatives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL.

Also, present at the joint meeting were the President of NLC, Mr. Joe Ajaero; Deputy President, Kabiru Ado Sani; the General Secretary, Mr. Emma Ugboaja; Deputy President of the TUC, Dr. Tommy Etim Okon; the Secretary-General, Nuhu Toro; and the President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, who is also a deputy president of NLC.