The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has hit back at President Bola Tinubu for telling the labour unions to stop their protests and join the political process in 2027.
The President, who made the remark at the inauguration of the Lagos Red Line project on Thursday, urged the unions to maintain peace and respect the views of other Nigerians.
However, the TUC President, Festus Osifo, said the President’s comment “was out of touch with the reality of the workers and the masses.”
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Osifo said the TUC members are not politicians but unionists who “have the right to protest and strike.”
He said: “What I am interested in is the welfare of my members and indeed the entire Nigerian masses. So, what the president said for me is alien to us because the right to protest and the right to strike is that of the workers.”
Osifo also clarified that the TUC did not betray the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) by not joining the February 27 nationwide protest, demanding government action to address hunger in the country.
He said; “We did not have any conversation; nobody even mentioned it to us that this is the direction to go. That conversation never took place. So as long as that also never took place, we never opt out of anything.”
The TUC’s position aligned with that of the NLC, which earlier on Friday issued a statement rejecting Tinubu’s advice.
The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said the unions were not interested in Tinubu’s position but were demanding the implementation of all the agreements the labour unions reached with the Federal Government following the removal of fuel subsidy.
Ajaero said the “NLC found the remarks of the President, particularly those concerning the role of labour in governance, to be profoundly at variance with the struggles faced by ordinary Nigerians under existing policies.”
