The House of Representatives yesterday voted for the immediate suspension of fuel subsidy removal, but organised labour has insisted that its planned strike action, rallies and mass protests will continue nationwide today.
To make good its threat, labour yesterday shunned a meeting with the Senate Committee on Labour which had sought a dialogue, obviously in a bid to convince its leadership to shelve the proposed strike action.
Some of the labour leaders who spoke with LEADERSHIP said labour was determined to press home the reversal of the price of petrol to N65 per litre.
It therefore directed all state chairmen of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and the leadership of the two labour centres in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to sensitise Nigerians, including market women, farmers, traders and students in their communities, on the strategic plans to follow from today until President Jonathan reverses the price.
NLC president Comrade Abduwaheed Omar and his TUC counterpart, Comrade Peter Esele, while reviewing the action plan for today’s protests, directed “the respective state monitoring teams to ensure that, from the take-off plans, all offices, plants, banks, facilities at the airports and seaports, oil and gas installations should be closed to business for as long as the strike lasts”.
It continued, “We urge the nation’s security agencies not to yield to the directives of the government to shoot at protesters, like what happened in Ilorin when harmless protesters were shot with live bullets, but if otherwise, the security agents involved would be brought to book.”
Labour noted that, “President Goodluck Jonathan cannot inflict pains on Nigerians and counsel that we should be patient.
“We were invited for a meeting by the Senate Committee on Labour on our planned nationwide strike for today, but we made it categorically clear that we cannot negotiate with anybody, be it the executive, legislature or the judiciary.? What are we negotiating for? Government has removed the subsidy arbitrarily and so we cannot honour any meeting unless the price of petrol is reversed to the former N65 per litre.”
The cold shudder came amid the House of Representatives’ resolution urging the presidency to suspend the removal of subsidy on petrol and for organised labour to reconsider the strike plans in favour of further dialogue.
The Senate and labour parley was planned to coincide with the Reps’ emergency session, which was convened specifically to discuss the vexed zero-subsidy policy and the state of emergency that was declared in four states in the northern region.
Both events, particularly the House session, was underscored by heavy security cordon from the Eagle Square to the National Assembly gate. It was a harrowing experience for commuters plying the route through the Federal Secretariat even as many lawmakers were not spared the extreme security measures.
The chairman of Senate Committee on Labour, Senator Wilson Ake, had announced a meeting of his committee with labour to explore ways of averting the planned strike. LEADERSHIP’s attempts to speak with Ake, however, proved abortive as his phone was switched off.
Meanwhile, organised labour has maintained its tough stance of flagging-off the Abuja wing of the protests from Berger Roundabout. The labour’s decision is against the directives of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Commissioner of Police that all protesters should assemble at the motor park of the National Stadium, which the Police said had been designated for all protests and rallies.
In a text message circulated around yesterday, organised labour directed all Abuja residents to assemble at the Berger roundabout by 8am daily for the anti subsidy protests and rallies.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Civil Society Organisations inform the public that Berger Round About is the meeting point for the anti-fuel price increase mass protests every day at 8am from Monday, January 9, 2012.
Reacting to the broadcast made by President Jonathan on Saturday, labour declared that the speech “was undoubtedly due to the resistance of Nigerians to the unreasonable increase in PMS prices and the planned national strikes scheduled to begin today”.
According to the workers’ union umbrella, the president’s address follows the pattern of other documents “… long in rhetoric and short on basic issues”.
“The president should have reversed the price of PMS to N65 which would have automatically slowed rising tension in the country,” labour counselled.
As organized Labour and civil society organisations? move to cripple socio-economic activities all over the country, financial analysts have continued to count the cost of the action to the nation’s already battered economy.? Analysts have calculated that the nation stands to lose N144.64 billion daily to the strike action if sustained.
They noted that if the strike lasted a period of seven days, the amount of money the federal government planned to save from the removal of fuel subsidy would have been lost as over N1.01 trillion would be lost.
The amount is premised on the gross domestic product (GDP) – the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, which equal the total consumer, investment and government spending, plus the value of exports, minus the value of imports.
Currently, the GDP of the country stands at approximately $270 billion or N43.2 trillion. But it is believed that the black market of the economy also accounts for $60 billion or N9.6 trillion. Put together, the country’s combined GDP, according to Bismarck Rewane, chief executive officer of Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) Limited, is in the neighbourhood of $330 billion or N52.8 trillion.
When the total market value of the economy is divided by 365 days, it then means that the country will lose about $904 million or N144.64 billion daily.
Already, three unions in the aviation industry yesterday confirmed that the airports will be closed to flight operations from Monday due to the nationwide strike called by labour.
The three unions – Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), and National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), – in a statement issued by Olayinka Abioye, deputy general secretary, for ATSSSAN; Abdulkareem Motajo, acting general secretary of NUATE; and Umoh Ofonime for NAAPE, respectively, explained that there was no going back on the strike action, even as they urged all aviation workers and passengers to round off operations.
Also, lawyers have indicated their resolve to be part of the strike action which seeks to protest the removal of fuel subsidy. Several other sectors have also indicated their determination to align behind labour today.
There are indications that both the NLC and TUC will continue the strike action in spite of a court order restraining both parties from going on strike.
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