Chrys
The Presidential steering committee on palliatives,
comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC),
and government representatives, is currently meeting at the chief of staff
conference hall in Aso Rock, Abuja.
The meeting comes amid threats of a nationwide strike by the
NLC over the gruelling economic hardship that followed the petrol subsidy
removal.
The organised labour had stormed out of a similar meeting
last Friday, claiming that there were no top government officials to negotiate
with them, thereby accusing the government of not being serious.
The botched meeting was to take briefings from three
subcommittees of mass transit, compressed natural gas (CNG), and cash transfer,
which the government had proposed to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal.
Present at the ongoing meeting are Joe Ajaero, president of
the NLC; Festus Osifo, his TUC counterpart, Emma Ugbaja, the general secretary
of the NLC; Nuhu Toro, the TUC secretary, and other members of the organised
labour delegation including Sam Amadi, former chairman of the Nigerian
Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
Representatives of the government include Femi Gbajabiamila,
chief of staff to the president; Kachollom Daju, permanent secretary, ministry
of labour and employment; Mele Kyari, the group chief executive officer of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, (NNPCL); Olu Verheijen, the
special adviser to the president on energy, among others.
