Officials of the Nigeria Labour Congress, representatives of civil society groups alongside concerned citizens are currently marching towards the Federal Secretariat and National Assembly in a bid to express their displeasure against the hike in fuel price and failure of the Tinubu administration to reverse “unfriendly policies targeted against the poor”.
The unionists who had in their hands placards with various inscriptions such as #BringBackOurRefineries; #LetThePoorBreathe; #ALUTACONTINUA have blocked the roads leading to the Federal High Court, Transcorp Hotel; Federal Secretariat Phase 1 among others.
It was also observed that officials of the Department of State Services, and the Nigerian Police Force among others had been stationed at respective points in other to prevent a possible hijack of the protest by non-state actors.
Already, the labour centre which has as affiliates most of the major unions in the country has vowed to sustain their “peaceful protests” until the government takes them seriously.
It was reported that the government and the organised labour has been at loggerheads following the removal of fuel subsidy by President Tinubu on May 29,2023. In an effort to foster negotiations, the government set up a committee to look into the demands of the organised labour.
Though the committee was given two eight weeks to come up with a suitable plan for workers and Nigerians at large, the labour leaders insisted that the committee had continued to show a lack of commitment towards their duty.
An earlier move by the labour leaders to embark on strike was resisted by the government with a court order obtained by the Ministry of Justice barring the labour unions from embarking on strike. The labour unions had tagged the injunction a “black market” injunction.