…Asks President to apologize to Jonathan for endorsing past protests
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has reacted to comments by President Bola Tinubu, berating the Congress for embarking on incessant industrial strikes during his tenure.
The President, on Thursday, chastised the NLC for calling for four industrial actions against an administration that has only been in office for nine months, saying that such a move was unacceptable.
Tinubu, who stated this at the unveiling of Phase One of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit Red Line at the Ikeja Station, declared that the NLC was not “the voice of Nigerians” and should contest in the 2027 general elections if it was interested in joining the electoral process.
Responding to this via a WhatsApp chat on Friday, spokesperson person of NLC, Mr Benson Upah, said Tinubu sounded resentful, forgetful and ungrateful.
Upah refuted the claims that the NLC had declared four strikes, stating that Tinubu’s government could not withstand it.
He added that the Congress is simply concerned about making sure that the appropriate decisions are made and has no desire to assume the presidency.
The Spokeperson said: “Quite unfortunately, the President sounded resentful, forgetful and ungrateful. First, to set the record right, Labour has not done four strikes in his tenure. I am not sure he would survive that. There have been one-day protests largely for which Nigerians have viciously attacked Labour for not pulling the plug. Nigerians have been so miffed by Mr President’s policies they wanted the roof but Labour has been very patient with this government. We expected a certain level of conciliatory comment in acknowledgement of this truth.
“In 2012, Mr President issued a twelve-page statement in solidarity with our protest against President Jonathan for raising the pump price of pms (not anything near what he has done). He called it the Jonathan Tax.
“With the benefit of hindsight, he should apologise to Dr Jonathan, for the Tinubu Tax in all dimensions, is more cruel than the Jonathan Tax.
“As for 2027, we want to correct the impression that Labour is after his office. We are not. We only want him to make the right decisions.”
