Organised labour in Nigeria has suspended its proposed strike action, barely 24 hours after embarking on nationwide protests against the removal of fuel subsidy.
The President of the Trade Union Congress, Festus Osifo, made this known during an interview with Arise News on Thursday morning. He said that labour leaders who had earlier met with President Bola Tinubu had extracted some commitments to some of the issues raised during the meeting for immediate implementation.”We have suspended the strike action because we have some commitments from the government,” Osifo said. “We will continue to monitor the implementation of these commitments.”The decision to suspend the strike came after a meeting between labour leaders and President Tinubu on Wednesday.
The meeting was held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. During the meeting, Tinubu reportedly promised to expedite an agreement on a new minimum wage, increase the supply of fuel to the market, and provide palliative measures to cushion the effects of the fuel price hike.
The removal of fuel subsidy has been met with widespread protests in Nigeria. The subsidy, which was introduced in 1973, had been used to keep the price of fuel artificially low. However, the government argued that the subsidy was unsustainable and had to be removed.
The removal of the subsidy has led to a sharp increase in the price of fuel in Nigeria. This has caused hardship for many Nigerians, who are already struggling to make ends meet.
