Subsidy: Scheduled FG, labour meeting not held

The scheduled meeting between the Federal Government and the labour unions did not hold as expected on Friday, our correspondent reports.

The meeting was part of the process of arriving at sustainable decisions on the palliatives to be provided to Nigerians due to the removal of subsidy on petrol by the federal government.

After a meeting on Wednesday, Mr Festus Osifo, Trade union Congress (TUC) President, had said that the talks would continue on Friday.

However, an official of one of the unions at the Friday’s scheduled meeting, who pleaded anonymity, told State House Correspondents that the meeting could not hold because of lack of quorum.

“The meeting did not form a quorum. If there is no quorum, we are a people that operate on the basis of process. So, if there’s no quorum in a meeting what do you do? You will adjourn for lack of quorum,” he said.

Our correspondent reports that the federal government had pledged to continue to work out measures to ameliorate the effect of the fuel subsidy removal on Nigerians.

These measures include the introduction of the use of Compress Natural Gas, mass transportation and cleaner energy alternatives.

Ms Olu Verheijen, President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Energy, disclosed this at the end of the Wednesday meeting with the unions in Abuja.

She said that the meeting made progress in agreeing to fast track a lot of the intervention that would stop the strike planned by the labour unions next week.

“But we are making progress, we’re trying to address the issues that will prevent a strike. We have to get it right. It’s important that we do this well, and we keep our promises.

“So it’s important that whatever is announced actually gets done. We don’t want to make big announcements and continue to lose people’s trust.

“It’s important that we build trust, and that most of the announcements and the plans that we roll out are credible and impactful,” said Verheijen.

She assured that Tinubu was taking measures to address issues concerning the palliatives, adding that he is very concerned about it.

“He is concerned about it, as you’ve seen all of us working round the clock here to make sure that we are able to announce these measures as quickly as possible. It’s a whole package of issues that we’re rolling out as quickly as possible.”