Congress has resolved to commence a nationwide strike today January 9, 2011. Mass rallies and street protest for the removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government on January 1 ,2012. Fuel prices have skyrocketed to 200 per cent due to the fuel subsidy removal thereby making other prices of goods and services to go up and making things difficult for the ordinary Nigerian.
Nigerian Labour Congress(NLC) and Trade Union Congress(TUC) and other civil society groups have been told to come together at Berger Junction roundabout everyday, 8.00am, starting from today.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s Saturdays night broadcast failed to address the issue. It was out of fear of the nationwide strike scheduled to start today January 9, 2012 and resistance of Nigerians to accept the fuel subsidy removal. Goodluck Jonathan’s speech was short of basic issues. The only major thing was the 25% cut in the salaries of the Executive arm of the government, but he failed to tell us in figures how much this will amount to.
Labour condemned the action of the president who single-handedly removed the fuel subsidy and at the same time held talks with transporters to reduces cost of transport fares. How do you “deregulate” the economy and hope to regulate transport fares by private operators?
NLC revealed that the National Industrial Court(NIC) lacks the jurisdiction to interfere with labour matters saying that the order issued by the court was a “black market injunction”. There were reports of scarcity of cutlasses and knives at the Nyanya markets where suspected Boko Haram members were said to have purchased all the cutlasses in the market. There was large movement of non-northerners travelling out of Abuja, following the three-day deadline given by the Boko Haram sect to non-northerners to leave the north
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