President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday night met with leaders of organised labour at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, in a last-minute effort to persuade them to shelve the planned nationwide protests over Nigeria’s worsening security situation.
The meeting, held behind closed doors, comes amid growing public attention and uncertainty over possible protest actions and strike threats by labour unions.
Speaking to journalists after the engagement, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, said the meeting was consultative and not a final negotiation, stressing that labour would first deliberate internally before announcing any decision.
“We came for a consultation with the President, and we are finished. We have to go back to our meeting and then continue tomorrow (Wednesday). By tomorrow, we will get the outcome,” Ajaero said.
When asked whether the NLC was still determined to proceed with the planned protests, Ajaero declined to give a definitive answer, noting that decisions within the congress are collective.
“If I’m insisting or not insisting, I will communicate that to you. It is not an organisation that one person rules,” he said. “We will go back to the drawing board, digest all that Mr. President said to us, and move forward from there.”
Also present at the meeting was Imo State Governor and Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors’ Forum, Senator Hope Uzodinma, who said sustained dialogue remained the best approach to resolving outstanding issues between labour and the federal government.
“Consultation is going on. We were dialoguing, and like he said, at the end of the day, you will know what you are supposed to know and what you want to know,” Uzodinma said.
He added that all parties involved were acting in the national interest. “We are here to serve the country, the labour, the government, and the governed. We are all working in service to the nation.”
The Minister of State for Labour, Rt. Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, also addressed journalists, saying labour leaders appreciated the opportunity to engage President Tinubu directly and were reassured by the discussions.
“They are citizens who are also members of the NLC. They wanted to see Mr. President, and they’ve seen Mr. President,” she said. “They are happy they’ve had firsthand engagement and that at least the President has driven the economy out of the woods.”
Labour leaders are expected to reconvene their internal meetings, after which a clearer position on the planned protests is expected to be announced.
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