Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, of Lagos State, has appealed to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) not to go on strike over petrol subsidy removal.
Recall that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, during his inauguration speech on May 29, said “petrol subsidy is gone”.
The president’s pronouncement immediately led to the resurface of long queues at fuel stations and a hike in the pump price of the product across the country.
On Friday, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) issued a five-day ultimatum to the federal government to revert to the old price of petrol or face a nationwide protest.
Speaking on Sunday shortly after a special “Thanksgiving Service” at the Cathedral Church of Christ in Marina, Lagos, the governor said going on strike will neither address nor resolve any issue.
Sanwo-Olu 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.
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“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 around, so there is no need to heat up the polity.
“We should not get political because it is governance, and the people must see purposeful governance.
“It is important to thank God Almighty and to acknowledge his help to all of us, as individuals, as a state, as a nation, and to also commit our second tenure to him, to ask him for direction and to place everything in his front.
“Lagosians should also expect a lot more from us. We have promised a human-centric THEMES PLUS agenda which will ensure no one is left behind.
“We want to build a better inclusive sense of governance where we will be doing a lot of hard and soft infrastructure, things that will touch the people’s lives, specifically palliatives that would bring succour and relief to our citizens in their difficult times, especially with the global economic issues.
“The people also need to understand that though, government cannot do everything, we need to be able to bring them out of poverty and speak to what their needs and yearnings are.
“So it’s a purpose human-centric agenda that will ensure that no one is left behind. And we are holding ourselves accountable to that.”
