Asiwaju Bola Ahmed, national leader of the All Progressives Congress, took the unusual step Friday of intervening in the Nigeria Labour Congress protest by visiting the NLC leaders right in their Labour House in Abuja, to appeal for an end to the strike.
Tinubu, accompanied by some officials of the APC and Governor Rauf Aregbesola, said he came on behalf of his party, the Buhari government to appeal to the labour leaders to end the strike and return to the negotiating table.
In a move designed clearly to massage the ego of the labour leaders, since the strike was largely ignored in many parts of Nigeria, Tinubu urged Labour to employ anger management in resolving the disagreement over the fuel price increase.
Tinubu explained the reason for the fuel price increase and said it was done in the best interest of Nigeria as it would allow investors to come into Nigeria to build refineries.
He contrasted the policy to the step taken by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012, when he set up SURE-P in 2012. The APC leader said what was sure of the SURE-P was corruption.
He said the Buhari administration would not follow the same path. He urged labour leaders to repose trust in the Buhari administration as it is one of integrity and honesty.
“This President is genuine. This decision was the only one left. Buhari has integrity and a character that is reliable”, Tinubu said.
Speaking further,he said….
“I cannot say we work from a distant, I cannot say I was not a part of what is happening today. I can only say I noticed the communication gap”.
“I cannot say you are the enemies of progress of the country, today we came in to appeal to you, and go back to history, we worked real hard to bringing Nigeria on a progressive path”.
“For me progressive governance is all we care about.
“Mr. President, the former president, our senators are here only to make clear that you are not the enemy and you will never be the enemy of what is progressive”.
“Why should we continue, problems after problem, conflict after conflict?”
“Without your support, without your participate we would not have won this election”.
In a response, Ayuba thanked Tinubu for his intervention and promised to take the appeal to the affiliates of the NLC. He said the NLC was not opposed to negotiation with government
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