 You're welcome back. It's still the breakfast on a plus TV Africa our topic right now is that NLC and TUC are Disagreeing on the protocol for planned strike remember that they have been that disagreement TUC is having meetings or they had had meetings with the federal government on some occasions and the NLC was not part of it and There was a a warning strike which TUC did not did not participate in and now the Moder of all strikes as the NLC is putting it is about to happen in fact the Ultimatum expired today and TUC and NLC are having that Tossel that fight as it is. That's how a lot of people are seeing it. This disagreement may not be very good for our polity but We have a mr. Bola hon ology day a public policy analyst who has joined us here in Lagos to x-ray what is happening in the labor circles Bola hon. Good morning and welcome to the program Yeah, good morning. I used to be there Okay, NLC to you see there seemed to be like one buddy with Different sides one coin with different sides now. They seem to be disagreement and so many people are looking at it Like there's a kind of divide and rule that has entered there So cause a dichotomy and then they will not be speaking with one voice And then you can do whatever you want to do as a government and get away with it and they're even drawing analogy from the ASU and Another group that came up and was parallel to ASU to cripple ASU. That's what on the street What would you say is happening in that sector and how does that affect the average Nigerian this fight? perceived fight between the TUC and NLC well For me, I believe that when things are like this most likely government will purify it If you have two institutions of label and they are not exactly Together what that means is that it reduces the chances of Industrial action and where they are there industrial actions Maybe it might not be as pervasive or as effective as they could have been There was a there was a warning strike for example some weeks ago Anybody who was in Lagos on those dates knew that there was literally nothing Going on in Lagos states during those days of warning strike Banks were open market open government offices were open. So you are asking who exactly was not working on those days And and it wasn't just legal there are, you know, other states that were just like that as well So I think the main the main issue is one body Willing to Joe Joe the mall with the government and the other body St. Luke government is just taking us for a ride doesn't appear. I see they are ready to do anything You know, but for me as a citizen What is important is I would like a situation in which stripes are avoided And whatever government needs to do whatever also even label has to do to ensure that as much as possible We can avoid strike is better because for every strike that happened The people get poorer All of the time losses people not been able to do business is economic activities jeopardize My a contraction to Whatever would have been our GDP gain on those days of the strides are there At the end of every strike Everything still end up on the table. So the question is for me is how Government can make sure that we don't have to go on this strike and how Label cannot so on their party is one level we would like to say that look Government doesn't seem to do any other language That doesn't respond to any other language that is industrial act And that is why probably NLC is pushing for an industrial action But my wish is that we will be able to actually have this talk without Resolved into an industrial act is like I said for every time That we have to go in the direction of strike or industrial action The country has a whole business and people are more in coverage. So government Has a least from label Which it is supposed to have been working on I Think if the least comprises of ten item There's a possibility that you might not be able to have an agreement For ten items for now So if it is five that is ready Let's begin to roll out the issue of a given five five billion to the state for example I could be a rollout on party a part of what is on that list Can we even get more communication about those items that are on the list of people? Which ones are ready for rollout now so that we can begin to roll them out Why will continue to discuss on those other issues for which agreement have not been reached now Rather than waiting for an entire list to be ready and then we'll roll out These are the kind of things I believe will help us reduce the chances that the industrial act Yeah, but now everybody talks about the fact that strikes, you know one too many all the time and Jojoing is better But you ask yourself now that the TUC had sat at table to talk with the federal government What has come of it because if they accepted to dialogue and NLC didn't accept to dialogue They were going to discuss the same things that NLC have been asking for so what is the outcome? Even this morning one of the headlines on the National Daily is a state on those data I think asking the federal government to say where the five billion they are giving to all the states as palliatives is coming from Because even the states do not know much about it and you just talked about being open about Whatever the demands of NLC are if they are not even open about what they are giving to the states how much more but right now What can be done? NLC is spoiling for a fight whether it was noticed in Lagos or not There's a possibility when they actually go on strike a lot of people will key in not just because NLC has said it But it gives them the opportunity to stay off work because you're factoring in your transportation You're feeding your everything and you said this is an opportunity. Let me just stay back home So it might be a success and if it's going to cripple the economy. What do you think can be done? Okay Like I said the in my opinion on the communication regarding this strike matters What on the side of the government and on the side of the two liberal institutions have not been good enough? I am supposed to be a reasonably But I tell you I don't know what is the entire league that has been deliberated right now I know are they on set of this discussion. I could pick a few items. I Remember vividly the issue of minimum wage. I remember the issue of alternative energy sources And a few other things, but if you ask me today Where exactly are we on any of those issues? I don't know Is it the least that they started with that they are still discussing on another list? so The communication has to be better for us as citizen even to be able to judge What exactly is going on between Libor and the government? Number two like I said earlier is that look if we now know what this entire list is It is possible for us to to even support the process and look we agree with you government That these and these should be ready by now I'm also surprised about those states saying they've not received anything in respect of the five billion because There was a communication saying to two billion had been credited to each of the 36 states and that some other Measures we will saw pictures of rice Yeah, that the problem that problem that problem is not that they haven't received their problem is What is the source of this money that is being given to the states? Where is it coming from? Are they borrowing is the federal government borrowing are they getting it from the First subsidy that has been removed. Where is it coming from that communication has not reached on those states? according to that statement Also, maybe the first thing they will have done is to return the one the gods As a matter of fact Borrowing requires The assembly the national assembly on those that has represented He puts in the house of representatives and then the Senate who are representing the good people of undue state And they will have been involved at the level of approving a borrowing Why don't say they call their sons and daughters and ask them this money? They give us which he probably don't want where did you guys get it? You know, maybe that will have been an issue but what is clear? However, is that If the the subsidy remover As led to a situation in which well as move From 180 something that we used to have all the way to five hundred six There is a lot more money being made available at the center and we saw this in the last part allocation This the states move from an allocation of about 600 locations are published anywhere I hope none of them will say that in order to say that patients move from about an average of six or an billion you know Six to six or a billion to about nine hundred You know, so if if if that happened it means that each of the state in the last allocation also even receive more money So almost it apart from asking the federal government for where it put the money is corrected They should also be asking its own government what it did with the extra almost thirty percent additional location that it got the last time the issue of of Palliating it's not going to be a fair government affairs alone The state the local government even the private sector if my organization we did a twenty-five percent salary review for people That is my organization I know organization that made all of us all of that step including maybe trying to introduce staff bonuses some said Introduce a hybrid hybrid work environment. So some of those things played out in some institution. It is not just Prefero government. However, the fair government must do its bit and the foot dragging on All the issues on discussion with labor must be resolved If there are ten items it is if it is five that is ready if it is seven that is ready Let's rule out those ones that are ready while we finalize this question on those ones that are not ready I will have expected for example that the issue of minimum wage We will have been able to get somewhere on the issue of minimum wage by now But I'm not so sure. Nobody has told us that anything Yeah, well, it was on the news was it yesterday or so that The the president is set to roll out new minimum wage by next month I think I don't know if that is in response to what the labor is asking for or he's just doing that on his own Because if it is part of what the labor is asking for it should have come from, you know the labor that okay, you have done this and Another one that we are expecting is this and that but labor is still going on like they have not been answered at all Which means if he's rolling out minimum wage, maybe there's no discussion even with the labor how much this minimum wage is going to be But we are expecting that also this morning on daily trust newspaper We have a headline which is screaming at me right now subsidy back as federal government pays 169 for point four billion Naira in August So we really don't understand what is happening like you said Communication is key and it is not reaching us so much. So would we blame labor? You see that there is a bit of a problem in my opinion about how we have approach subsidiary move up and the consequences of Of that is part of what is playing out now. What has been happening is that? When you deregulate and you leave everything to the forces of markets And the price of cruise don't forget that the food price is the single largest Item in the cost profile of the PM of the refined product PMS that we concept That's singular most important most costly item has been going up In fact in the last three days, it has gone up very dramatically But before even the last three days it has been going up So the question the reality is that when the single largest Contributor to the cost is going up the way crude oil price has been going up You are bound to have very serious pressure on the price of the refined food So the question that government is asking itself at this junction is Can I really subject this you know to the to the market force? Because if we do that if we say that that's the one price. I was just $80 or something dollars a couple of months ago. It's now 90 something And then the price has to go from 600 Naira to a liter to maybe another seven seven hundred or something around that figure seven fifty When did people take it and don't forget the dollar the dollar is 980 Naira, I think right now I said yesterday Are there and the pressure is very high on the price of PMS can we afford at this moment without forcing crime to say Both the FX implication as well as they are increasing crude oil price internationally Those two combination you put it on the price of PMS Now what will PMS sell for in the market? So it is the possibility that our news item is very correct That we have gone back at the back end and started to support the price of PMS all over again Which means the subsidy removal is a scam more or less means the subsidy remover is on a pause Okay, but we are concerned the way forward is what we're looking at labor and okay, not labor and Both of them are labor to you see and the Nigerian labor Congress If you were to advise them, what would you advise because tomorrow might be the beginning of a strike? We don't know because today the Ultimatum they gave to the federal government will end as a 12 p.m.. 12 a.m It will end. So what is going to happen tomorrow? How will the government act right now? I don't know what they are going to say you have given solutions to what they should have done But that would take more time in the in the in the interim the low-hanging fruits What do you advise the government to do and what do you advise labor to do? Let's wrap up I will advise government to pull the labor and the TUC and NLC together again and review the least of this demand and do a tick off and Do a tick off and then have certain agreement and timeline on how they exactly they can do there are many items on the lease You know, I'm a leader who pursued Labor to do a review or a review of their stance on the issues of Strike, I do not foresee a situation in which TUC would join labor tomorrow. Anyway, even if the strike were to a head And but however it is we should avoid strike as much as possible for every strike we are in perversion the nation and the individuals further and That's at the end of the day We will see now come back come and have the same job job that we would have had today to avoid the strike super Okay, our economy is too fragile right now to experience another strike Who knows if it's going to last another three months four months eight months? We don't know so we don't want it. We'd like to thank you so much Bola hon for coming on the show this morning to help us make sense to what is going on Thank you so much for your time Yeah, thanks for having me We've been talking with Bola hon ology day a public policy analyst talking with us here in Lagos We'll take a short break when we return another guest will join us for the second hard topic stay with us