‘Give us more time’ — FG begs NLC to suspend planned warning strike

Simon Lalong, the minister of labour and employment, has appealed to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to suspend its proposed two-day warning strike over the impact of petrol subsidy removal on the masses.

On September 1, Joe Ajaero, NLC president, announced that the strike would commence on Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, Lalong said such a strike would be detrimental to the gains already being recorded by the new administration.

He said the leadership of the congress should give the government more time to address the issues being raised by NLC.

“In light of these matters, I would like to reiterate my appeal to the leadership of the NLC to suspend the warning strike and subsequent future actions to allow us to work together to amicably resolve these issues rather than embark on actions that would further worsen the conditions of the citizens of Nigeria,” Lalong said.

“I would request that the comrade leadership of the NLC give this government some time to settle and address the issues on the ground holistically.

“It should be realised that the cabinet of this administration was only recently sworn in by Mr President and all cabinet members have hit the ground running by receiving briefings from their MDAs.

“Therefore, the issues raised by the leadership of the NLC are some issues that I and the Minister of State for Labour and Employment are being briefed upon.”

Lalong said the ministry under his leadership would continue to pursue policies aimed at massive employment generation in all sectors of the economy.

He noted that this would enable the government to look into immediate challenges that have come out of its policies, saying “we cannot do this in an atmosphere devoid of industrial peace”.

He also said that as a minister of labour and employment, he was yet to be served official communication of the NLC communiqué issued at the end of its national executive committee (NEC) meeting as required by law.

He further urged the labour body to do the needful by following laid down processes for handling such matters since the cabinet is now in place.

He assured that all the issues raised by the NLC would be looked into one after the other.