Petrol subsidy: Restive NLC serves FG nationwide strike notice

With effect from August 2,2023, workers under the aegis of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) will go full blast on a nationwide strike.

Already, the organized labour has given the President Bola Tinubu administration a seven-day ultimatum to conclude negotiations with labour or face industrial action over the scrapping of petrol subsidy on May 29, 2023.

An indication to this effect was given by the National Treasurer of the NLC, Comrade Hakeem Ambali, in an interview with newsmen on Wednesday.

“Yes. We issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to conclude all negotiations with labour or face industrial action yesterday by the Central Working Committee,” Persecondnews quotes him as saying.

Persecondnews recalls that the federal government had in June gone to court to procure an order barring the NLC from going on strike following the removal of the subsidy by Tinubu.

The government had since set up a committee to liaise with the organised labour — the Trade Union Congress and the NLC but labour has accused the government of failing to engage it in a dialogue.

However, NLC leadership said it could no longer fold its arms and watch Nigerians particularly workers suffer the effects of subsidy removal which has brought dire hunger and poverty in the country.

Persecondnews gathered from its secretariat in Abuja that the NLC Executive would meet next week Tuesday, August 1, to deliberate on the way forward.

“Failure of the government to meet the ultimatum will lead to a nationwide strike,” a labour official said.