*Government must address minimum wage, end hunger, unemployment, insecurity, NLC insists
*Govt has met most of their demands – Onyejeocha
Members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Tuesday protested nationwide over the biting economic hardship in the country.
Labour and Federal Government authorities had met Monday in a late push to stop the protests, but the meeting ended with no agreement reached between the parties.
As early as 7:00 am, protesters started gathering in different parts of the country, bearing placards and putting on the paraphernalia of the NLC.
Speaking on Tuesday, the President of the NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, said contrary to claims by the government, the union is not protesting only asking for increases in the country’s minimum wage of N30,000, but protesting against increasing hunger, corruption and insecurity.
“You have to understand it. This protest is about hunger. What of those who are not working? The minimum wage, when will it be completed? When will it be implemented? What will be the minimum wage that will remove hunger?
“The UN said that every the poorest man should be fed on $2 per day. That’s the poorest. And if you have a family of six people, $2 per day by six is $12,” he said while addressing the press in Abuja.
“In a month, you have $360 which translates to about N700,000. Is that the minimum wage you’re talking about? Is that what will feed you? That’s feeding alone. I’m not talking about transportation and accommodation. So what are we saying? What about medical? What are we saying?
“Well, you know, we don’t, we don’t tell them what to do. We will tell them how we feel. There was hunger in the land, but it wasn’t this bad until deregulation. And then after the regulation, we proposed all that we needed to. If they had solved the problem of transportation immediately, they would have solved almost 50% of the problem.
“Because even when you process garri in the village, you need to transport it to town. The expenses you incurred on transportation, you add it to the cost of garri.”
Ajaero accused the Federal Government of failing to meet the demands of the union since the removal of fuel subsidy which he said has led to a rise in the cost of living.
“So the moment they touch PMS, you can’t fill your tank with N30,000, N40,000. So the moment they touched it. We said, ‘OK, bring CNG buses. This is 7-8 months, no one bus is on the street,” the NLC chief said.
“So we have provided all those solutions, even the cash transfer. They are still telling us now that they will start the cash transfer and they were playing politics with it that they were diverting it to their accounts. After today, we review our situation and decide on other steps to be taken.”
However, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, said not only was government working hard to reduce hunger, provided palliatives, but has met most of the denand made by the Organised labour last year.
She listed payment of wage award, provision of palliatives, payment for provision of CNG vehicles and putting other measures to alleviate hardships in the country.
In Abuja, labour leaders led by Ajaero marched to the National Assembly to express their greviances.
Led by Ajaero, they handed over a letter containing their charter of demand to Sen. Diket Plang, chairman of the Senate Committee on Labour who received them on behalf of the President of the Senate. In all the states in the feferation, they held peaceful protests against the prefiction of security agencies to harp on the poor economic conditions in the country.
protests held in Owerri, Imo State; Uyo, Akwa Ibom State; Kano, Kano State; Damaturu, Yobe State; Bauchi, Bauchi State; Katsina, Katsina state; Abakaliki, Ebonyi State; Aba, Abia State, Lagos, Lagos State; Jalingo, Taraba State; Yenagoa, Bayelsa State; Ibadan, Oyo State; Sokoto, Sokoto State; Ilorin, Kwara State; Minna, Niger State; Lokoja, Kogi State; Enugu, Enugu State; Osogbo, Osun State; Owerri, Imo State and Jos, Plateau State, among other states.
