Anayo Ezugwu 
The NLC suspended its protest after a day; what have you achieved with the one-day protest?
We have achieved something tangible which was why we summoned an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting to deliberate and receive reports across the country. The first that happened is that at least we have voiced our views. We told the entire world that Nigerians are hungry, there is insecurity, and there is poverty in the land, among other challenges. Secondly, we delivered our letter and we will now wait for the action of the government. During our National NEC meeting, we reviewed state by state, the achievements that was why the communique at the end of the NEC meeting.
The NLC presented a letter to the President on its 15-Point Agenda but the previous letter that was sent to him hasn’t been honoured to a very large extent. What are the assurances that these new demands will be met and are these assurances enough for you to have suspended the protest and even give the government two weeks as opposed to seven days?
You will agree with me that we signed the first agreement on October2, last year. But we are not convinced with the level of implementation of the agreement, which was why we called on the attention of the government again. You will also agree with me that from the time we signed the October agreement till date, there have been new challenges and these challenges include the rising cost of living in the country, which necessitated the NLC to make other demands apart from what we signed in October last year. You are also aware that we had two meetings between the government and the organised labour at the instance of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), where a lot of issues were discussed, and in attendance were some ministers, that of Agriculture, Budget and Planning and Minister of Finance. We made presentations on what we had, but what we are saying is not what we have on the table but we need action this time around. We were also with the chairman, House Committee on Agriculture and the chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, who also gave us assurances that the issue of insecurity will be addressed immediately because to us what causes all these challenges are issues of poverty and hunger in the land. You know that a hungry man is an angry man. Based on the assurances that they gave us, promising that this time around there will be action, the National Executive Council decided to suspend the protest. We did not say that we will not utilize the second day. There were press conferences across the country and also at the national secretariat in Abuja, where we addressed the nation. We have a lot of compounding issues, particularly the implementation of the wage award, which only very few states in the country have started implementing. This is the reason we decided to give a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government which will expire on March 13. After that, we will reconvene and analyse the progress so far in the two weeks and decide on the next line of action.
In the course of the protest on Tuesday, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) was not part of it. The TUC has gone ahead to make a fresh 15-point demand, not the same as the 16-point agreement that was reached with the Federal Government on October 2, 2023. It looks like there is a split in organised labour even as the president of TUC accused his NLC counterpart of running a one-man show. What steps are you taking to ensure that all these rifts are resolved?
On the issue of division in the labour union, and as to the reason 65 affiliates did not participate in the protest, I don’t think it is right to make such speculations because the NLC has about 53 affiliates, the TUC has its affiliates and the Civil Society Organisations (CSO) are also on their own. During the meeting at the office of the SGF, we were together with the TUC from the inception until the end of the meeting. There’s no division between the TUC and the NLC, it is only the means of approach that differs this time around. The TUC is an independent organisation and the NLC is also an independent organisation. They have their organs and we also have our organs. After the issuance of the 14-day ultimatum, jointly between the NLC and the TUC, the NLC went ahead as an independent body to call its NEC meeting and during that meeting, the NEC resolved that we should go for the two-day protest, which the TUC in their manner of approach, thought was not proper and decided to go their way. But at the same time, we have the same mission and the same vision, and we’re working together as a team. I want to assure you that this time around, the approach differed. As time goes on, we’ll harmonize ourselves because this is not the first time that we’re approaching the government on different issues. At the end of the day we’re going to the same destination. They also held a press conference, they also opposed importation by the government and at the end of the day all that we are trying to do is take care of the hunger in the land. I want to assure you that there is no division between the TUC and the NLC. We’ll come to work together at a certain point. The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) works with us but this time around, they may have different opinions. And again, this is a protest and not an industrial action. At the end of the day, we’ll probably work together. On Tuesday, a lot of CSOs joined the protest in Abuja. There are some like minds, who think that protest is one way that you can use to express your anger with the government and also let the nation hear your voice.
How is it that the NLC didn’t carry TUC along as regards the exact date of the protest? Again, when can we have synergy between the leaders of the NLC and the TUC because there used to be a very strong synergy?
As I said earlier, the TUC and the NLC are two different independent bodies. They don’t need to work together at a certain point. The approaches might differ. It is a kind of two-way approach. Any organ can decide to act as it wishes. The TUC has its members of the National Executive Council and they are free to decide on what to do. The NLC has its own as well. Sometimes, we used to have a joint national executive council and once we have that kind of joint national executive council, at the end of the day, we will have a joint press statement and take our decision. I want to assure you that this is an internal issue and we are on the verge of reconciling ourselves, so that we can synergize because we believe that we have the same vision and the same mission. I want to assure you that at the end of the day, we will harmonize our differences. If there are national issues that need the attention of both parties, we will try to jointly have a joint national executive council meeting, so we can be on the same page. The second question on the issue of carrying everybody along, we also try to reach out to everybody. It depends on how the organisation looks at things. We can look at approaches, immediate and long approaches, and so on. That will not stop the NLC from taking its actions as proposed by its organ.
The statement on Tuesday by the NLC president indicated that after the 14-day fresh ultimatum, which will expire on March 13, if the government doesn’t implement the 16-Point Agreement of October 2, 2023, labour will be forced to take further action. What would that further action likely be because it is not feasible that the agreement would be delivered by the Federal Government in two weeks?
Let me clarify here that once there is an ultimatum, it means that the body which gave that ultimatum will equally state its line of action. It is not that after the expiration of the 14 days, we’ll immediately take action, but we’ll reconvene to access the level of implementation of the agreement of October 2023, and see the level of implementation. What is the level of implementation of wage awards at the state level? What is the level of implementation of cash transfers? What is the level of implementation of supplying food in the country? It depends on the level or the percentage implementation of that agreement. The next discussion will be to decide either to give more time or to take appropriate action.
