By Henry Umoru
ABUJA – MINISTER of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has asked workers in the Federal Capital Territory to come out to their respective places of work if the proposed strike by the organized Labour holds as no one would harass or intimidate them.

According to the Minister, the administration has put in place effective security measures to ensure that nobody was molested as they come out to seek for their daily bread.

He said, “we are in a free country and everybody has the right to come out to look for his or her daily bread”.

Speaking Tuesday in his office, Malam Bello who appealed to the organized labour to shelve the proposed nationwide strike in the interest of the nation, reiterated that this was not the time to embark on strike in Nigeria because the country was presently passing through economic challenges.

The Minister said, “I will like to appeal to the labour leaders to listen to the appeals from the generality of the people that now is not the time to strike in Nigeria because we all know what our dear country is going through economically.

“We all know what the present administration under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari is doing to ensure that we get out of the economic challenges we are facing, which really is as a result of factors that arose totally beyond the control of everyone in government now, including the citizens”.

According to Malam Bello, Minister of State, Petroleum during his interactive session with the members of the House of Representatives had explained the rationale behind the hike and all the reasons were definitely very convincing as they are a reflection of reality on ground.

He therefore urged the leadership of the labour to use its position to encourage all workers to support the government policy as well as ensure that government organizations and individuals that were supposed to regulate and oversee the entire petroleum value chain from exploration, refining, importation, distribution and eventual retail make sure that every one works efficiently.

The Minister charged labour to also ensure that people do not use the present situation to cut corners and charge above the true cost of bringing in this product.

“The labour leaders have to understand that for a very long time, we have not had a leader who we all know and see practically that is genuinely concerned in trying to salvage our nation. So, these kinds of opportunities do not come all the time. It’s an opportunity of a life time and I believe as a people, we Nigerians have to embrace this opportunity and support the government, pray for the government and ensure that these policies are effectively implemented,” he stressed.

Malam Bello said that one of the benefits was that the system would be very efficient and the products will be priced based on their true costs, not addition of cost that appreciates due to inefficiency.

He said, “More importantly, we need to look at how to ease the pains of Nigerians. If you take the FCT Administration, what we intend to do, obviously, if the price of fuel goes up as it has done, the tendency is that transport fares will also go up. So, as a government, what we intend to do is to deploy more buses onto the streets and as you know, the bus fares have always been subsidized.

“We should have faith in the President and understand that this systemic and structural problems that we are facing today are culminations of issues that occurred many years ago and I think it is good for us to be realistic and understand that they cannot just disappear overnight. It requires collective hard work for us to salvage this country and I’m very confident that by the grace of God Almighty, we’ll succeed”.