Lagos – The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Monday said the proposed industrial strike of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) scheduled for Wednesday would be counterproductive for the country’s economy.
Mrs Nike Akande, the President of LCCI, said this in a statement in Lagos.
She urged the NLC to embrace dialogue with the Federal Government as against disrupting economic activities through a nationwide strike.
“The Nigerian economy is already in a very fragile state with very little capacity to absorb the shocks of any major dislocations.
“The resultant hardship from a strike action at this time will be excruciating, especially for the majority of the citizens, SME businesses as well as the informal sector players in the economy.
“This makes the dialogue option imperative.
“We welcome the offer by the government to immediately engage the leadership of the labour unions in dialogue for more effective communication on both sides,” Akande said.
She said that appropriate context of the petroleum policy dialogue should be centred on fiscal viability of all tiers of government and the need to increase investment in the petroleum downstream oil and gas sector.
Akande said that other considerations should be the imperative of economic diversification and the need to provide palliatives to cushion the adverse effects of the policy on the citizens.
She urged the government to utilise information dissemination machinery in enlightening the public on the inevitability of the new policy regime. (NAN)