President Bola Tinubu has made an earnest plea to the organized labor, urging them to grant him additional time to thoroughly address their grievances rather than resorting to industrial action.
This appeal was conveyed by Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, who briefed State House Correspondents after leading his leadership team to update the president on their engagement with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), who had declared a nationwide strike.
According to Abbas, President Tinubu expressed that he is still new in office and requires time to thoroughly assess the concerns raised by the workers, as he has not been fully briefed on those matters yet.
He stated, “He’s just coming on board. We should ask them and beg them to please give him a little more time. The things that they mentioned, he is completely unaware of them, he is yet to be briefed about all those issues. But from what he heard from me, he also advised that we should channel some of those issues to the Chief of Staff to look at them one after the other.”
The House leadership had invited NARD due to their intention to go on strike, and they managed to convince the union to defer the plan. The purpose of their visit to the presidential villa was to inform the President about the progress made with the doctors’ association and to introduce the House leadership formally.
Regarding the impending protest by the organized NLC on August 2, both the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and the TUC President, Festus Osifo, reiterated the need for the government to address the suffering of Nigerians caused by the increase in the price of PMS and to roll out programs that offer relief and alternative solutions.
The Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen, emphasized that progress had been made in the discussions, particularly concerning interventions to alleviate the impact of the increased cost of transportation through measures such as cleaner energy and mass transportation.
The President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is reportedly working diligently to address these issues as swiftly as possible, and the government is committed to ensuring credible and impactful plans to rebuild trust with the people.
