Olubadan urges organised labour to shelve planned strike

The Olubadan of Ibadan land, Oba Lekan Balogun, on Saturday, appealed with the organised labour to shelve the planned nationwide strike.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the end of the joint National Executive Council meeting on Tuesday declared an indefinite strike beginning from October 3 over the hardship caused by the removal of fuel subsidy and other policy initiatives of the current administration.

In his message on Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Day anniversary issued in Ibadan by his Personal Assistant on Media, Mr. Oladele Ogunsola, the Olubadan urged the labour leadership to have a re-think on the strike.

He urged the organised labour to explore ways of resolving the dispute with the Federal Government instead of the planned strike.

Oba Balogun said: “The labour leaders should prevail on their members to bear with the present administration, with the mindset that no problem could be solved with another problem.

He equally urged the federal government not to overstretch Nigerians and called for tangible measures to reassure the citizens that President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda was truly for real.

READ ALSO: Labour unions shun last minute moves by govt to stop strike

The monarch added: “I plead for dialogue between labour and government, and in dialoguing; there should be openness and understanding.

“Let us bear in mind that where two elephants fight, it is the grass there that suffers.

“Let’s be mindful of the effect of a total paralysis on our battered economy.

“Consider the sick, the pupils and students from our nursery schools to the universities, among several others, who will bear the brunt.

“I want our labour leaders to cast their minds back to the last prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the effect on our students.

“How do we compensate for the loss of a whole academic session in the lives of the affected students?

“Such loss is eternal because it is not possible to wind back the hands of the clock. That’s just an example.”

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