Barring any last minute changes, the proposed mother of all strikes being organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress [NLC] might not hold after-all.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC] is not folding it’s arms, elombah.com has learnt.
NNPC group managing director, Ibe Kachikwu has been sighted running from pillar to post, trying to throw spanner in the oiled wheels of the upcoming protest.
Sources reveal he is sharing Dollars among labour leaders, in an effort to break the ranks of NLC and TUC.
The embattled petroleum boss is alleged to have doled out whopping sums to certain bodies and individuals to buy them out of the strike.
According to a source, a group was reportedly paid N150 million by NNPC to justify the removal of subsidy.
The Federal Government had invited the leadership of organised labour to a meeting in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation on Monday to discuss the increase of fuel pump price from N86 and N86.50k to N145.
Representatives of organised labour and the civil society had, after a meeting in Abuja on Saturday, given the Federal Government till midnight on Tuesday to reverse the increase or face an indefinite national strike.
Labour unions gave the strike notice in a joint communiqué issued by the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress after the meeting.
One of the mandates of the groups they are sharing money to is for them to also mobilize street protests in support of subsidy removal, said the source.
In fact, to justify the pay, the group has gone on air and started adverts in an Abuja-based Radio & TV.
They are presently putting finishing touches to their adverts for Lagos and some other key cities.
Incidentally, the money-sharing does is not limited to NNPC/Ibe Kachikwu.
It does not end within the ranks of Labour and Trade Union Congress [TUC] either.
Money-sharing has also been reported in Aso Rock.
Some civil society groups as well as NLC/ TUC have also been sighted collecting ‘egunje’ from certain presidential quarters.
The whole essence is for members to frustrate the OccupyNigeria2 endeavour and abort the unborn ‘Mother Of All Strikes’.
The emergency meetings of the national executive councils of the NLC, the TUC and CSOs held on Friday May 13, 2016.
Arising from the meeting, a joint communique was issued which upheld TUC’s five-day ultimatum issued to the federal government, to rescind the fuel price hike.
The ultimatum will expire on May 17 by midnight.
The emergency meeting debated extensively the implications of government’s unilateral increase in prices of petroleum products.
It noted government’s disinclination for consultation on issues of public interest and its obsession with protecting product marketers at the expense of the Nigerian public.
The meeting expressed concern about government’s neo-liberal policies which it considered a betrayal of its electioneering promises.
Some of the pre-election promises by President Muhammadu Buhari as published by Elombah.com on Monday include :
1. “I will bring down the price of petrol to 40 Naira per liter”.
2. “I will declare my assets and publish it and get my Ministers to also publish theirs.”
3. N5,000 to 23million Nigerians!
4. “I will bring USD at par with the Naira”, etc.
Read more promises here: RE: N1/2TR PRESIDENTIAL PALLIATIVES – HOW TO DEFINE PATHOLOGICAL LIAR
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