Lukman to Tinubu: Give ministers mandate to engage organised labour

Salihu Lukman, a former vice chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the north-west, says President Bola Tinubu should give a mandate to the incoming ministers to engage the organised labour in the country.

In a statement on Tuesday, Lukman said the president should sack ministers who fail to deliver on the mandate.

The former director-general of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) was reacting to the threat by organised labour to embark on a strike and its criticisms of Tinubu’s plan to cushion the impact of the petrol subsidy removal.

Lukman said by setting benchmarks for his cabinet members, Tinubu could ensure that the interests of diverse citizens are taken care of.

“Now that the young government of President Asiwaju Tinubu is about to be fully constituted with ministers appointed, President Asiwaju Tinubu should consider giving all his ministers clear mandate to ensure strong engagement with organised groups,” Lukman said.

“In particular, engagement with NLC and other labour groups must target pre-empting strikes and protests in all sectors. In the context of that, as a democratic nation, we must begin to set benchmarks of allowable limits for all strikes in all sectors.

“Ministers of labour and by extension ministers in all sectors who fail to operate within such benchmarks must be shown the way out. This is more to ensure that government services in all sectors accommodate the diverse interests of citizens in those sectors.”

The former APC vice chairman said the measures to cushion the removal of petrol subsidy should be treated as proposals that would need the input of labour.

“While acknowledging that what was contained in the national broadcast of President Asiwaju Tinubu of July 31 should be treated as proposals that require further engagement with all stakeholders, including labour, the federal government must take every necessary step to revive NLAC and get NLC and all other labour associations to use the tripartite platform to negotiate policy design and implementation,” he said.

“Being a negotiating platform, labour and organised private sector should be free to also make proposals to be negotiated.

“Given where we are as a democratic nation, rather than dismiss proposals coming from the government, especially when it comes with the kind of opportunity of saving one trillion naira in two months, responsive and representative organisations such as NLC should be coming up with proposals of what to do with the trillion nairas that are being saved.”