The Joint Action Front (JAF), a coalition comprising various civil society7 organizations, has strongly recommended that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) resist the mounting pressure to halt the impending indefinite strike. This stance should persist until the recent fuel price hike and university school fee increments are entirely reversed.
JAF’s Chairperson, Dr. Oladipo Fashina, and Secretary, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, have vowed unwavering support from the Joint Action Front (JAF) for the labor movement’s battle against the anti-poor and neo-liberal policies of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. These policies include the withdrawal of fuel subsidies, fuel price increases, currency devaluation, rising school fees, and other assaults on the standard of living.
The coalition has assured the NLC and TUC of the readiness of all workers and what they term “oppressed Nigerians” to join the forthcoming general strike. They seek to demand the complete reversal of fuel subsidy removal, fuel price hikes, and public educational institution school fee increments. Additionally, they intend to address all other policies that have adversely affected the working class and impoverished individuals.
According to the group, should the leadership of the NLC and TUC choose to prematurely suspend the general strike due to concessions proposed by the Federal government, it would merely be a delay in the struggle. The coalition emphasizes that the current balance of power indicates that labor stands to achieve much more by continuing the general strike.
In their official statement, the coalition articulated, “The current struggle is being framed by the corrupt capitalist ruling elite as simply about demands for palliatives. This is not true. This struggle is an ideological struggle against a neoliberal and capitalist policy of deregulation of the oil sector.
“We are well aware of number of concessions being granted at the eleventh hour by a federal government that conveniently ignored labor over the past 21 days. This includes a wage award of N35, 000 across board for federal workers as well as promised provision of CNG buses etc.
“So far, all of these concessions are promises, none has been implemented. Therefore, it would be a costly gamble for labour to suspend its strike on the basis of promises by a ruling elite that habitually fails to implement collective bargaining agreements with trade unions especially the ASUU-FGN 2009 agreement as well as the 2019 minimum wage agreement which is still not being paid in a number of states across the federation.
“As far as JAF is concerned, palliatives only address symptoms whereas the root of the crisis is where the solution lies. Even if implemented, no matter the amount of wage awards granted, so far the policy of fuel subsidy removal and fuel price hike subsist, Nigerian workers and the poor masses will continue to suffer.
“Therefore we urge NLC and TUC to accept the concessions already won while at the same time going forward to demand that the wage award applies to all categories of workers at both public and private sectors, a complete reversal of the fuel price hike and the policy of subsidy removal as well as reversal of the criminal hike in school fees at universities and other tertiary institutions as the only minimum criteria before a suspension of the general strike can be considered.
“Unless fuel price is reversed and the oil and gas sector placed under public ownership and workers democratic control and management, the incidence of inflation and collapse of living standards cannot be assuaged by mere wage awards or even a review of the minimum wage. This is because of the primary and fundamental role of Nigeria’s oil sector in the character of Nigeria’s economy and the prices of all commodities.”
