Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan and Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
The Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Lekan Balogun, and the Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, have appealed to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart to tread with caution over their proposed nationwide strike scheduled to begin on Tuesday, October 3.
Olubadan, in his 63rd Independence Day anniversary statement by his media assistant, Oladele Ogunsola, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, further urged the labour leaders to shelve the planned strike and explore ways of resolving the vexatious issues.
He said: “I want to plead with the workers’ unions and urge the government not to overstretch the people. There must be tangible measures to reassure the people that the renewed hope agenda is truly for real.
“I plead for dialogue between the labour and government. There should be openness and understanding, bearing in mind that where two elephants fight, it is the grass there that suffers. Let’s be mindful of the effect of total paralysis on our battered economy. Consider the sick, consider the students from our nursery school to the university among several others that would bear the brunt. The loss is simply incalculable.
“I want our labour leaders to cast their minds back to the last prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities 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 hand of the clock. That’s just an example,” the monarch pleaded.
He congratulated President Bola Tinubu; his vice, Kashim Shettima, state governors and the generality of Nigerians on this auspicious occasion.
On his part, the Leader of the Senate, Senator Bamidele, has appealed to the NLC and TUC to suspend their plan to embark on an indefinite strike in the national interest.
Bamidele made the appeal in a message to Nigerians to mark the nation’s 63rd independence anniversary of released by his Media and Public Affairs Department.
He noted that the federal government and all its relevant agencies are working underground to come up with viable options in response to the demands of the organised labour.
The Senate leader congratulated Nigerians across all socio-economic and political strata on the 63rd anniversary Nigeria became an independent nation.
He observed that Nigeria, in spite of her internal challenges, remained “a strong, united and indivisible nation that still provides strong leadership not only for West Africa, but also entire Africa.”
