NLC summons NEC meeting today to review strike

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has summoned its high­est organ, the National Executive Council (NEC), for a meeting to­day (Sunday) in Abuja to review the ongoing nationwide strike em­barked upon on Wednesday to pro­test against the hike in the price of petrol by the Federal Government.

The labour centre is expected to hold two meetings of its organs, the National Administrative Council (NAC), an organ of elected officers and the NEC, comprising represen­tatives of all the Congress affiliates.

According to a source, it was in the agenda of the Congress at its last meeting on Tuesday where it declared the indefinite strike to re­view the strike at the weekend.

Today's meeting, according to the President of the Congress, Ayu­ba Wabba, would also be discuss­ing the proposal by the National leader of the All Progressives Con­gress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who turned up at the NLC secretariat in Abuja on Friday to appeal to the leadership of the congress to sus­pend the strike.

Tinubu, who visited the NLC in company with other powerful APC cheftains, including Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, Sena­tors Sulaiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North), Kabir Marafa (Zamfara Central and many others had said that his mission was to broker truce.

He had charged NLC to return to the negotiation table with the Federal Government to recon­cile the present crisis emanating from the congress call for total reversal of the pump price from the N145 to its former price of N86.50k.

Tinubu had told labour that it would be unwise to destroy the house it built, having been a strong ally in the APC victory.

Wabba, who told Tinubu at the meeting that NLC was not opposed to negotiation, howev­er said the appeal would be ta­bled before the NEC, the organ which has the power whether to negotiate with government or not.

Meanwhile, there are strong indications that the NLC may call off its nationwide strike today after the meeting based on several appeals from several stakeholders.

It will be recalled that the Senate President, Abubakar Saraki met with NLC on Thurs­day evening after the Senate Committee on Labour had vis­ited the NLC office earlier in the day.

Though the NLC after the meeting with the Senate Presi­dent declared that the strike would linger for another two weeks, some insiders believed that the strike may need to be reviewed for more cohesive­ness.

In Lagos, the strike recorded less success as residents moved around their normal business without any form of harassment or molestation.

A reliable source blamed the lethargy from some of the affili­ates as the reason why the strike has not been very effective.

The source noted that if the members of the National Union of Roads Transport Work­ers, the civil service union, the teachers and others had pulled their weight, the Lagos suc­cess would have been the bench mark for other states.

'We also reliably gathered that some influential people in the state, in the ruling party had also influenced some area boys in Lagos to disrupt the protest, which was the reason we took off late to monitor the situa­tion. The Alausa workers equal­ly has been brainwashed by the APC governmennt.

'We understand that the coun­try is tensed and the area boys may not understand the impor­tance of what we are doing, as far as we are concerned we don't want any distractions', the source said.

Meanwhile legal luminary, Femi Falana has offered to handle the case that federal gov­ernment may slam on the NLC in relation to the injunction re­straining the Congress from em­barking on the strike. - The Sun.