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The Federal Government and Organised Labour, in discussions held yesterday, agreed on a set of measures designed to reduce transport fares and lower the prices of essential goods, particularly food items, as part of their commitment to alleviate economic pressure on the population.
This development coincided with the House of Representatives calling on the Federal Government to reverse the recent petrol price hike and take urgent action to stabilize fuel and cooking gas prices. The lawmakers suggested targeted interventions such as temporary price reliefs, tax breaks, or subsidies for LPG aimed at easing the burden on low-income households.
Concluding last night’s discussions at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Federal Government agreed to summon state governors for a meeting aimed at guaranteeing the N70,000 minimum wage rollout across the country by October.
In addition to other terms, sources at the meeting revealed that the government and Labour agreed to sustain their discussions in a bid to heal the fractured relationship that had previously existed between the two.
“Government promised to release over 2,000 Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, conversion kits in the first instance. It also promised to release 45 CNG buses to Labour to complete the 90 earlier promised organised labour.
“As part of efforts at crashing transport fares across the country, the Federal Government will hold a meeting with state governors to fully embrace the CNG buses. This will also affect the cost of foodstuffs as it will reduce the costs of transporting food items from different locations to consumers drastically. These are parts of efforts to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal on the citizens.
Read also: Explain ₦70,000 Minimum Wage Coverage To Us – NLC To Lawmakers
“The government also promised to summon a meeting of the economic council to impress it upon state governors to ensure the new minimum wage takes off across the country this month.
“It also promised to incorporate labour into the economic council, so labour will participate and monitor economic policies of government, instead of government throwing policies at labour and Nigerians that may result in agitation or protest.
“They agreed that it is better to ‘jaw-jaw than war-war’, meaning, there will be continuous dialogue between government and labour
“The government also promised to hasten and complete the refineries. They said almost five refineries are about to be completed,’’ a source told Vanguard last night.
The sources equally said “government promised to pay all outstanding arrears and wage awards to workers and inaugurate all the boards labour has representatives.”
One of the sources said “all these are promises, but the good thing is that it was agreed that the meeting will be a continuous process.”
Another source also said the issue of government not honouring agreement was raised, adding that government admitted that it did not do well in that regard and promised to change.
