AVIATION WORKERS SET TO CLOSE NIGERIA'S AIRSPACE TO PROTEST SUBSIDY REMOVAL

*World Federation of Trade Unions supports labour agitation

Aviation workers including Pilots and Engineers are set to shut down Nigeria’s airspace to both domestic and foreign airlines commencing next Sunday mid-night in accordance with the directives of the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) and the Trade Union Congress(TUC) to protest the removal of petroleum subsidy by the Federal Government.
To strategize for the planned nationwide protest, all the aviation unions/associations in the industry have started mobilizing their members to ensure the total shut down of the country’s airspace with the summoning of all executive members of all the aviation unions and association to an emergency meeting on Friday,6,January,2012 at an undisclosed venue.
This was disclosed by the acting Secretary General of the National Union of Air Transport Employees(NUATE),Comrade Abdul-Kareem Motajo while shedding light on the commitment of aviation workers to follow to the letter the directives from the TUC and the NLC saying that organized labour movements and especially Nigerians can no longer afford supporting a "deaf and dumb" government that derive pleasure on inflicting pains and unbearable hardships on the masses.
According to Comrade Motajo, a circular has been issued to all employees and stakeholders in the air transport sector and allied organizations directing them to " close down operations at 00.00hrs Sunday-meaning Monday 9^{thJanuary,2012" and added that they must ensure full compliance in the interest of all Nigerians and "our industry".
The circular was endorsed by Comrade Olayinka Abioye,Deputy General Secretary of Air Transport Service Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Comrade Abdul-Kareem Motajo, Acting General Secretary of NUATE and Comrade Umoh Ofonimeh,Assistant General Secretary of National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers(NAAPE).
Expatiating on the planned strike action, Comrade Motajo said that the government should not be deceived that if the labour leaders are arrested, the total nationwide strike would be scuttled. He said, "arrest or no arrest the Nigerian people are ready for the total stagnation of economic activities throughout the country come Monday, 9th, January 2012 unless the government listen to the voice of reason and revert to N65.00 per liter of petrol that subsist before the unpopular hike of the pump price of petrol to N138-N141".
The unions, he further assured are reaching out to other professional bodies in the industry, especially the Air Traffic Controllers, Aeronautic Engineers, Aeronautic Information Service and others ensure success of the strike and send a signal to President Goodluck Jonathan that he was in the saddle at the instance of popular support he enjoyed during the last presidential election and he should therefore listen to the voice of the people and desist from going down into ignominy as the worst president Nigeria ever had.
Re-echoing the stand of the NLC and the TUC ,he enjoined the police and the military not to in anyway disrupt peaceful protest by Nigerians, because they are also part of the polity with "our families and theirs going to the same market, all our children and family members going on public transport whose fares have been hiked by over 100 per cent by the unpopular removal of subsidy by the government".
If President Jonathan refused to revert to the old price of N65 per liter, Comrade Motajo said the organized labour would be in the fore-front of calling for his impeachment as he no longer serve the interest and welfare of Nigerians he swore to protect at his inauguration and that the killing of an unarmed protester in Ilorin was an act of deliberate man’s inhumanity to man as is being unfolded by the Jonathan administration and that,"we are ready to prosecute this inhuman act at the international court of justice in the Hague".
Meanwhile,the World Federation of Trade Unions(WFTU),has expressed its total support for the on-going struggle by the organised labour against the removal of oil subsidy by the Nigerian government and the planned nationwide protest slated for next Monday.} 

^{In the statement issued by the secretariat of the global labour union on January 4,2010, from its base in Athens, Greece, it stated that,” on behalf of its 82million members from 120 countries, denounces the decision of the Nigerian government to end the fuel susidy for the people which will bring the further increase in the petrol price up 50% until 130%, in additionto the existing living conditions of the Nigerian people, the poverty and the high prices for the daily essentials that are already a huge burden for the popular family.}

^{“Nigeria is the biggest oil producer in the sub-saharan Africa. The wealth-producing resources of the country are exploited by multinationals and monopolies leaving only hunger and poverty to the majority of the population while the capitalists are gaining huge profits.}

^{“The World Federation of Trade Unions(WFTU) demands from the government of Nigeria to immediately take back this anti-labor decision.}

^{“We express our support to our brothers, the working people of Nigeria and we express our international solidarity to the strikes and their struggles.”}