Buhari Returns After Two-Week Foreign Trips

President Muhammadu Buhari has returned to Abuja after spending 16 days to attend three major international events in Scotland, France, and South Africa.

The President arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, around 4:45pm, after attending the 2nd Intra-African Trade Fair 2021in Durban, South Africa.

He departed Nigeria for Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday, October 31, 2021, to participate in the 26th edition of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26).

President Buhari left Glasgow to equally participate in the Paris Peace Forum (PPF) in France.
Source – Daily Trust

NUPENG Threatens Nationwide Strike

The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) has issued a two-week strike notice to the federal government, raising the possibility of fuel scarcity across the country in the coming weeks.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by NUPENG president, Williams Akhoreha, and general secretary, Olawale Afolabi, on Monday.

The union said the notice of strike was one of the decisions reached at its special national delegates conference on Thursday.

It listed non-payment of workers’ salaries and benefits, among others, as reasons for its resolution.

One of the issues, NUPENG said, was the outstanding payment of terminal benefits to its members that were declared redundant in 2012 by the management of Chevron Nigeria limited.

The union accused the management of Chevron of terminating the employment of contract workers because the employees joined the union, despite that the workers had put in between 10 to 20 years. It said the workers were terminated without payment of benefits.

The statement read in part “We write to convey to the general public and all relevant government agencies the resolution of the special national delegates conference to issue a 14-day notice of a nationwide industrial action if some legitimate welfare and membership related issues that have been variously resolved in our favour even by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment are not adequately and conclusively addressed and resolved within the next 14 days. This ultimatum takes effect from Monday, November 15, 2021″.

“There is also the matter concerning PYRAMIDT workers, who for more than 20 years now are being moved from one labour contractor to another without conditions of service and union representation and recognition,” it said.

The union said contract workers working in oil mining licence (OML) 42 of the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), an upstream subsidiary company of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), were being continuously owed salaries and allowances for upwards of eight to 10 months.
Source – Premium Times