Don’t go on strike over fuel subsidy, Sanwo-Olu begs NLC

Don’t go on strike over fuel subsidy, Sanwo-Olu begs NLC

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has pleaded with the organised labour to shelve their plan to go on strike in protest against fuel subsidy removal.

He said state governors were already discussing ways to mitigate the effects.

The governor spoke on Sunday with newsmen shortly after a special thanksgiving service at the Cathedral Church of Christ in Marina, Lagos, to mark the end of his second-term inauguration activities.

The Nigeria Labour Congress has given the Federal Government up until Wednesday to revert to the old pump price of petrol or face a nationwide workers’ strike.

But Sanwo-Olu said going on strike would neither address nor resolve the issue.

The governor said rather than being confrontational, labour unions and Nigerians should support President Bola Tinubu in the quest to take the country out of the woods.

He said, “This is not the time to go on strike. Recall that all presidential candidates said the first thing they will do is remove fuel subsidy. So what has changed? What has President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said or done that is different from what others would have done?

“The President has not even spent one week in office. We need to be very patient and reason together. Let us not make the issue about politics, but let’s support this man. We should allow him to go and reflect.

“Strike will not resolve anything; it won’t address the issue. The point should be how to ensure a sustained turnaround in our economy.

“The President mentioned better wages, and we started that in Lagos in January, and I hope other states can key into it.

“We don’t need to wait for the national government, we just need to reflect on what the challenges are in the country and seek ways to resolve them.

“So I plead with the NLC to not turn the subsidy issue into a political one. The leadership should know they are leading people and so there is a need to restrain themselves.

“Let us be patient and work with the President. NNPC has said it has more than enough fuel to go round, so there is no need to heat up the polity.”