President Bola Tinubu has met with leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Organized labour began a strike on Wednesday in Nigeria to protest the hardship that citizens face following some policies of the present administration in the country.
President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, who was accompanied by the President of the TUC, Festus Osifo, spoke to State House Correspondents after the meeting, saying that President Tinubu made some commitments to them.
He said the issues that came up at the meeting were the same as what led to the protest.
The NLC and TUC Presidents said that they would go back to their members and inform them about the engagement with the president before stating their next line of action.
“The issues were the same issues that led to the protest today. He has expressed his position, made some commitments, which we are taking side by side with what the National Assembly said and we are taking it back to the office with our colleagues there to review it and release a document on our next line of action,” they said.
Deeper Commitments
Ajaero said that the president’s commitment at the meeting were deeper than what he said in his nationwide broadcast on Monday.
“We have gone deeper into them. The broadcast were broader issues, but there are one or two things that need immediate attention,” Ajaero said.
He said that the decision on whether or not to call of the ongoing protest would be taken by the Executive Committee of the NLC and disclosed that the Congress would hold its National Executive Council meeting on Thursday.
“No one person can call it off; that is why I said we have to go back to the office so that EXCO looks at it before we come with a decision and by tomorrow the NL will equally have their NEC meeting to look at the bigger picture,” he said.
Asked if the president asked them to call off the protest, Ajaero said: “the president is a pro-democracy activist. So, he understands protests.”
He insisted that further communications would only be made after the leaders meet their members.
Confidence Okwuchi
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