Striking National Assembly workers, under the auspices of Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria, have vowed to continue their ongoing industrial action just as federal lawmakers are scheduled to resume from their long break on Tuesday (today.)
The lawmakers are resuming plenary after a series of resumption postponements over the primaries held by political parties to select candidates for the 2023 general elections.
The National Assembly workers had last week shut down the premises of the parliament, blocking the main entrance and cutting water and power supplies to the buildings, as they pressed home their demands for the payment of some allowances among other demands.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, had on Friday, in a meeting with management and workers of the National Assembly, appealed to the striking workers to call off their industrial action and instead, embrace dialogue for the speedy resolution of the disputes.
But the Public Relations Officer of PASAN, Amos Enobong, told The PUNCH on Monday that the strike would continue despite Lawan’s intervention.
He said, “The strike is still ongoing, we are yet to call it off. We met with the Senate President and they made their offer, it is left for us to accept or reject it.
“We are having a congress early tomorrow (Tuesday). We will present the offer to the congress and whatever is agreed upon would be the determinant if we are to continue with the strike or not. But as it stands now, we haven’t called off the strike.”
When contacted, the Senate spokesperson, Ajibola Bashir, said he could not say if the plenary would resume or not as nothing has been said otherwise about the resumption date.
He said, “On the strike, I don’t have much to say. I think that can be answered by the management of the National Assembly. I am not part of the management and you know there is a difference between senators and management. Management is headed by the Clerk of the National Assembly. We are elected representatives in that place.
“We hope that the management will meet the workers and possibly resolve the matter ahead of our new assumption date of June 14. But I believe that there is a need for dialogue and ensure that whatever could be done to ensure that those demands are addressed is done.”
One of our correspondents, however, sighted a notice from the leadership of PASAN to members, asking them to gather at the gate to the National Assembly complex for a congress in the early hours of Tuesday (today).
While Senate plenary starts at 10am and House’s starts at 11am, the workers changed the time for their congress from 10am to 7am.
The notice titled ‘Slight change on joint congress time,’ read, “This is to notify all PASAN members that the joint emergency congress of the NASS/NASC Chapters earlier scheduled to hold by 10am has been rescheduled to hold as follows: Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2022. Venue: National Assembly gate. Time: 7am prompt. Aluta Continua! Victoria Ascerta! Signed: Joint Chapter Chairmen.”
Sources in PASAN disclosed to The PUNCH on Monday that the outcome of the congress would determine whether to suspend the shutdown for legislative duties or continue the protests.
The Special Adviser on Media and Labour to the Clerk to the National Assembly, Austen Adesoro, said the management was making effort to resolve the strike issues and that plenary would hold as scheduled.