Labour Did Not Betray Workers Over Strike Suspension – Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Friday, stated that the organised labour did betray Nigerian workers over suspension of its planned strike.

Recall that the organised labour suspended their strike over the increase in petrol and electricity tariff after meeting with the federal government.

Following the action of NLC and TUC, Nigerians had accused labour leaders of compromise and betrayal.

The Minister while speaking on TVC on Friday noted that labour was patriotic by suspending the strike.

Mohammed further stated that the organised labour after days of negotiations agreed with the government that deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector is a necessity and not an option.

“The moment we lost as much as 60 per cent of our earnings and suffered a kind of shock in crude oil prices, we must deregulate.”

“Between 2006 and 2019, we paid N10.413 trillion in fuel subsidies, an average of N743.8 billion per annum.”

“The simple truth is that the government can no longer afford to subsidise PMS and the subsidy has never benefited the common man.”

“What the two parties agreed upon are things that must be done to mitigate the effects of the deregulation on the workers,’’ the minister said.

He claimed that the Federal Government agreed with labour that it would facilitate the setting up of many modular refineries and rehabilitate existing regular refineries to cushion the effects of the deregulation.