*Labour: Strike goes on, rallies shelved*Talks with Belgore panel today*Jonathan: We must deregulatePresident Goodluck Jonathan early this morning announced a slash in petrol price to N97 per litre, down from about N144 that it climbed to after the New Year's Day removal of fuel subsidies.But the president's gesture, which is contained in the text of a speech scheduled to be broadcast this morning, did not satisfy labour unions who announced minutes earlier that the strike would continue today but street rallies had been shelved.'Government will continue to pursue full deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector. However, given the hardships being suffered by Nigerians, and after due consideration and consultations with state governors and the leadership of the National Assembly, government has approved the reduction of the pump price of petrol to N97 per litre. The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has been directed to ensure compliance with this new pump price,' the president said.An embargoed copy of the speech was emailed to Daily Trust by the Presidency shortly after 1 o'clock this morning.About 15 minutes earlier, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress Abdulwaheed Omar told journalists at the Labour House in Abuja that the strike would continue but the street protests had been called off owing to security concerns raised by President Jonathan.In the speech, Jonathan said the street protests that followed the subsidy removal had caused serious security problems.'There was also near-breakdown of law and order in certain parts of the country as a result of the activities of some persons or groups of persons who took advantage of the situation to further their narrow interests by engaging in acts of intimidation, harassment and outright subversion of the Nigerian state. I express my sympathy to those who were adversely affected by the protests.'At the inception of the deregulation policy, Government had set up the Justice Alfa Belgore Committee to liaise with Labour and other stakeholders to address likely grey areas in the policy, but despite all our efforts, Labour refused the option of dialogue and also disobeyed a restraining order of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.'However, following the intervention of the Leadership of the National Assembly, and other well-meaning Nigerians, Labour accepted to meet with government, but this yielded no tangible result.'It has become clear to government and all well-meaning Nigerians that other interests beyond the implementation of the deregulation policy have hijacked the protest. This has prevented an objective assessment and consideration of all the contending issues for which dialogue was initiated by government. These same interests seek to promote discord, anarchy, and insecurity to the detriment of public peace,' he said.Jonathan's speech came after series of meetings through yesterday with state governors, National Assembly leaders and labour leaders at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.At the end of the meeting at about 10.20pm, labour leaders said they were going to their offices to meet and announce a decision after Jonathan would have made a broadcast.But when it became apparent that there would be no broadcast during the night, Omar spoke to journalists. He said while the strike continues today, labour and the Alfa Belgore committee set up by the government would start discussions today to iron out the differences over fuel subsidy.Yesterday's meeting, which lasted for about three hours, was a follow-up to Saturday night meeting with the labour which was inconclusive.Also in attendance were House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and principal officers of the National Assembly.State governors who attended the meeting were those of Edo, Lagos, Sokoto, Delta, Oyo, Osun, Kogi, Plateau, Ogun, Niger, Benue, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Ebonyi, Anambra, Rivers, Cross Rivers, Katsina, Kaduna, Nassarawa, Taraba, Enugu, Kebbi, Ondo, Ekiti, Zamfara, Gombe and Bauchi, as well as deputy governor of Kano State. Also in attendance were ministers of Petroleum, Information, Labour and Finance.But the Joint Action Front, organised labour's civil society partner in the ongoing nationwide strike, issued a statement late last night, saying the suspended strike and mass action would resume today following government's refusal to meet the demands of labour and civil society.The statement said, 'JAF held a mass meeting today to plan for the resumption of the strike and mass actions on tomorrow Monday January 16, 2012 after the failure of the Jonathan government to meet the demand of Nigerian people for reversion of petrol price to N65.'The meeting attended by about 80 activists resolved to continue the effective enforcement of the strike in various communities in Lagos and resume the protest march along with Labour (NLC and TUC) which daily takes off from NLC Yaba to different parts of Lagos.'JAF has action committees in a number of communities in Lagos which organized various forms of enforcement activities as well as mass actions like mass meetings, rallies and protest marches that drew hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets across the state in the first phase of struggle between January 9 and 13. There were similar activities by JAF chapters and associates across the country.
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