The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr Tajudeen Abbas, reiterated his hope that the strike action embarked upon by the Association of Resident Doctors would be called off if some of their demands are addressed.
The head of the green chamber made the remark in Abuja while speaking with State House correspondents on the strike, after introducing members of the new House leadership to President Tinubu.
The leadership of the House of Representatives had played crucial roles in persuading resident doctors not to embark on strike, but that persuasion was ignored.
Having understood the negative impact of the strike, the Speaker of the House, Alhaji Tajudeen Abbas, went to President Tinubu seeking a solution.
In return, the President asked the House to plead with the striking doctors to withdraw their action and give him time to study their concern and find a solution.
“What he said was that he was just coming on board. We should ask and beg them to please give us a little more time. Most of the things they mentioned, he is completely unaware of them. He is yet to be briefed about all those issues. But from what he heard from me, he also advised that we should channel all those issues to his Chief of Staff for him to look at them one after the other. I believe within the next coming days, some concerted actions will be taken”, he explained.
On the notice of protest given by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress,TUC, the Speaker said they would persuade them to also suspend their action.
In the meantime, the two labour unions in Nigeria have threatened to go ahead with a nationwide protest on Wednesday next week to draw awareness to the pain caused by the removal of subsidy on fuel on Nigerians if the government fails to implement the promised palliatives.
Briefing newsmen on their stance at the meeting with the government’s steering committee on palliatives, the President of the TUC, Mr. Felix Osifo, said the committee had agreed to study the areas the unions were disagreed with in the committee’s presentation and get back to them on Friday.
“What we want government to do is to address the plight of Nigerians. Nigerians are suffering, things are hard, things are difficult. All we are saying is that government must, as a matter of urgency, roll out various programmes that will create alternative to PMS, that is about the CNG and also the palliatives that must be brought out to ameliorate these sufferings Nigerians are passing through”, Mr. Osifo stressed.
He expressed the hope that the unions’ meeting with the government’s steering committee on Friday, this week, would produce the desired results.