A cross-section of Nigerian lawyers has strongly condemned the suspension of the proposed strike by Nigerian workers over the recent hike in fuel prices as well as electricity tariff. They lamented that the government has weakened unionism in the country.

Leading the vilification, human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, who said the suspension was very disappointing. Having mobilised Nigerians in readiness for a total shutdown, he said, it was not very patriotic to suddenly suspend the strike like a thief in the midnight.

He said the unionists had disrupted people’s plans and schedules almost for the entire week.

“But more importantly, labour did not gain anything from the negotiation at all, except it is deceiving and misleading Nigerians.

“The so-called suspension of electricity tariff increase will come back in just two weeks. And labour also accepted deregulation to kill the people of Nigeria.

“The real question then is, why did labour declare the strike at all when it knew it was yet to exhaust avenues for dialogue?”

The government, Adegboruwa said, has succeeded in weakening labour, such that, “I don’t think it can ever call out workers and Nigerians again. It is most unfortunate; but, if labour can be steadfast to see through the negotiations, what a strike should have achieved can also be achieved through a roundtable.”

Another lawyer and former director of Constitutional Watch, Aham Njoku, said a lot of Nigerians were disappointed with the way and manner the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) handled negotiations with the government.

“In all, from what l hear, people feel that labour just acted an old and worn-out script. They made a lot of noise claiming to be mobilising citizens for protest, only to chicken out at the last minute. This has happened several times in the past,” he said.