The Organised Labour on Friday staged a walk out from the meeting called by the Presidential Steering Committee on subsidy palliatives scheduled at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, led his delegation to the Chief of Staff’s office, venue of the meeting, about 5.00pm but left the villa after a while, Guardian reports.
Recall that the Steering Committee met with the government delegation last Wednesday where the two parties agreed to reconvene yesterday to get briefs from the three sub-committees set up to look into various demands.
The Steering Committee was set up by the government to come up with palliatives that would cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal on the workers. But the meeting could not hold because some members of the Steering Committee said there was no quorum.
The Labour union accused the Federal Government of using the meetings as a decoy to deceive Nigerians. Multiple sources at the meeting confirmed that three sub-committees, the Mass Transit, the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Cash Transfer sub-committees, were supposed to be present to brief the Steering Committee on the measures put in place to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal on the workers.
But Labour claimed that government officials who are members of the sub-committees were nowhere to be found. Irked by the development, a member of the Steering Committee from Labour, who craved not to be mentioned, said: “They are not prepared for the meeting. That’s the truth,” maintaining that the government representatives had insisted that the meeting should proceed even though no quorum was formed.
“They are using cover to deceive Nigerians. There are supposed to be three sub-committees – mass transit sub-committee, the CNG and the cash transfer – to brief us, but the government was not prepared for the meeting.
“In their introductory remarks they made excuses and they wanted the meeting to continue; the meeting did not form a quorum. We are a people that operate on the basis of process. So, if there’s no quorum in a meeting what do you do? You will adjourn for lack of quorum.
“There was nobody to meet with. The Chief of Staff was not there. They are taking us like small children,” the source claimed. However, it was gathered that the Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, had earlier waited for the Labour delegation with other members of the team at his Conference Hall.
He was said to have later stepped out to attend to other official matters within the villa while other members of the government team were waiting for the Organised Labour to arrive.
It was gathered that the Labour delegation from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) was delayed at the State House entrance gate for clearance.
It was also gathered that the names of the Labour delegation were not sent to the gate for clearance, which led to their delay in arriving for the meeting.
One of the leaders of the Labour delegation had told journalists: “We were detained at the gate.”
The botched meeting would have been the fourth in the series of meetings that had been held since the implementation of the petroleum subsidy removal.
The Organised Labour has already scheduled a nationwide protest for August 2 to press home their demands over the petroleum subsidy removal.
