Subsidy Removal: Scheduled FG, Labour Meeting Fails to Hold
The meeting was part of the process of arriving at sustainable decisions on the palliatives to be provided for Nigerians.
The scheduled meeting between the federal government and the labour unions over fuel subsidy removal did not hold as expected on Friday, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The meeting was part of the process of arriving at sustainable decisions on the palliatives to be provided for Nigerians due to the removal of subsidy on fuel by the federal government.
After a meeting on Wednesday, Festus Osifo, Trade Union Congress (TUC) president, said that the talks would continue on Friday.
However, an official of one of the unions present at Friday’s scheduled meeting, who pleaded anonymity, told State House Correspondents that the meeting could not hold because of a lack of quorum.
The meeting was scheduled to hold in the conference room of the office of the chief of staff to the president.
The meeting did not form a quorum. If there is no 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,’’ he said.
NAN reports that the federal government had pledged to continue to work out measures to ameliorate the effect of the fuel subsidy removal on Nigerians.
These measures include the introduction of the use of Compress Natural Gas, mass transportation and cleaner energy alternatives.
President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Energy, Olu Verheijen, disclosed this at the end of the Wednesday meeting with the unions in Abuja.
She said that the meeting made progress in agreeing to fast-track a lot of the interventions that would stop the strike planned by the labour unions next week.
‘’But we are making progress, we’re trying to address the issues that will prevent a strike. We have to get it right. It’s important that we do this well, and we keep our promises.
‘’So it’s important that whatever is announced actually gets done. We don’t want to make big announcements and continue to lose people’s trust.
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