The Federal Government and organised labour, yesterday agreed to conclude all contentious issues and implement the resolutions on mitigating the effects of the removal of subsidy on Nigerians.
This followed the resumption of talks between the government representatives and the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), at the State House, in Abuja.
The Organised Labour had on June 5 suspended its planned nationwide strike over the removal of subsidy following an agreement reached with the Federal government to initiate measures to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal.
The parties also set up a Presidential Steering Committee to receive the reports of the technical sub-committees on the different issues raised within eight weeks.
Meeting outcomes
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, the TUC President, Festus Osifo, and his NLC counterpart, Joe Ajaero, said: “The purpose of the meeting today is actually to put together the framework, what we submitted as our demand, how will they be delivered. So, we are looking at that framework, the government came with what they think will work; we also made some input.
“We agreed that anything we are putting together we are going to conclude everything in eight weeks. Everything must be rolled out within that time, not something that we are going to leave endlessly. They have submitted the framework to us, we have looked at it, and we have made input to it, this night we will continuously work on it in order for us to come up with the deliverables.
“If you look at the communiqué that was signed in our last meeting, there are some action items in the communiqué. So it’s actually how these action items will be delivered. For example, we need to have a Presidential Steering Committee that will have to oversee everything.
“There are some technicalities that are required beyond this meeting, so those technical committees will be subsumed into the Presidential committee, but we must conclude everything maximum in eight weeks.
The purpose of the meeting today is actually to put together the framework, what we submitted as our demand, and how they will be delivered.
“The terms of reference for these committees are going to be agreed on between today and tomorrow. We are looking at five broad technical committees that will be subsumed into the Presidential Steering Committee. There must be timelines in these terms of reference but the maximum should not exceed eight weeks. By next week Monday, we will be here again, same time.”
Also speaking, the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication and Strategies, Dele Alake, said the meeting considered the short-term, medium-term and long-term measures in resolving the issues.
He said: “We reconvened today, both parties went through this list and we tipped off the viable ones, those things are broken into three categories. The immediate, are those that can be of low-hanging fruits in the short term, the medium term and the long term.
“One group has been constituted at today’s meeting; there is a steering committee that will be like a clearing house. There are other groups set up comprising both parties, government and labour members and these groups will work together very harmoniously and efficiently to arrive at the final resolution of all these demands and what we call interventions.”
Also present at the meeting were the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila; Special Adviser to the President on Revenue, Zachaeus Adedeji; the Special Adviser to the President Energy, Olu Verheijen, and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Kachallom Daju.
Others are the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), NNPC Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari; the Commission Chief Executive, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe; the Authority Chief Executive, Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed; and a host of others.
