The quick and timely response of the Federal Government to the strike notice earlier served by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has brought great relief to the economy which should by today have been reeling.

We commend both sides for treading the line of patriotism and demonstrating willingness to work together towards finding acceptable and lasting solutions to the removal of the petrol subsidy pronounced into immediate effect by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his inauguration day. It shows we are all ready to own the problem and solve it together rather than engage in politically-tinged trading of blames.

We commend the Joe Ajaero-led NLC’s decision to engage the government rather than keeping its distance as it could have done. There is no problem we cannot crack with constructive engagement. We also feel relieved that Labour did not insist that we must revert to the old pump prices. That seems practically impossible now. Any attempt to try that will only worsen the situation. Marketers will shut down their stations and refuse to sell, and that will create extreme scarcity and further price hikes.

Coming to the negotiation table enabled Labour leaders to unfold their demands for government’s attention. Among the issues now on the agenda are: solutions to the issues in the education sector, working out a new minimum wage, expanding infrastructure/the rail network, implementation of the Compressed Natural Gas, CGN, policy abandoned by the Buhari government, completion of the maintenance of the old refineries and the setting up of a joint committee to work on Labour’s demands.

All these, however, are mostly medium to long-term measures in response to the subsidy removal. Indeed, we may have to wait for the rest of the four years of this administration before some of them will begin to impact on the people. The immediate, most pressing problems that led to the strike notice have not been addressed.

For instance, we have not been told the truth about the Buhari government’s budgeting for the subsidy regime till the end of June 2023. Is it still on? Or was it all a hoax? Are the people going to bear the brunt of subsidy removal from the end of May, instead of end of June? The stoppage of the strike has not changed the fact that people have to pay three times the cost of petrol earlier than anticipated.

It is unfortunate that the already impoverished people have been handed this additional burden which would have been forgotten by now if the current president and his party had not used a nationwide protest to force the Goodluck Jonathan government to postpone the evil day in January 2012.

We hope to see more of this refreshing proactive response to issues. We may be getting somewhere at last.