Follow Us on Google
From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joseph Ajaero, has placed the blame for the suspension of the union’s planned nationwide strike on the general public, not the union’s leadership.
Ajaero stated this on Wednesday in response to criticisms he has received from Nigerians for botching the strike, which was intended to protest the federal government’s decision to terminate its subsidy on petroleum products.
Speaking on the morning show of the AIT channel, Ajaero described the general public as being too complacent on the issues affecting their well-being like the current astronomical hike in the pump price of petrol which was jerked up from N193 to N540 across the country after President Bola Tinubu had announced during his Swearing-in ceremony in Abuja that “petrol subsidy is gone”.
The NLC president however, noted that another factor in the decision to call off the planned industrial action was to demonstrate to the outside world that NLC is a law-abiding organisation after the federal government acquired a restraining order from the National Industrial Court (NIC) for this purpose.
He said: “It pains me to read all manners of media reports accusing NLC of not going ahead with the proposed strike. It’s not all about Labour leading the strike, what about Nigerians? The problem is that Nigerians are very docile. Protests must not only be led by NLC, what about 130 million Nigerians in multi-dimension poverty, can’t they come out to protest?
“Again, I say to the Civil Society Organisations (CSO) blaming Labour for not protesting, why can’t they lead the mass protest? The truth is that NLC has been carrying the burden of CSOs in leading the protests and it should not be so.
“Look, even the judges who gave the restraining order that organised labour should not go on strike on June 7 are affected by the untold hardship Nigerians are going through at the moment courtesy of the increase in petrol pump price”.
Ajaero further gave the example of the time in the past when the military junta under former President Ibrahim Babangida proscribed NLC, but Nigerians including Student Unions of higher institutions in Nigeria mobilised and protested until the federal government succumbed.
“As Student Unionists, we protested alongside CSOs and Nigerians against the policies of the Babangida regime hence agencies like People’s Bank and others were created by the administration to ameliorate the sufferings of the citizens. Nigerians should not be docile, waiting for only NLC to lead protests”, Ajaero admonished.
NLC after an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Tuesday, cited the mood of the nation, in view of the outcome of the presidential elections still being challenged at the tribunal, the need to pursue national stability and the restraining order obtained by the Federal Government from the National Industrial Court (NIC), among others as reasons for the decision to shelve the planned industrial action.
However, the communiqué released at the conclusion of the meeting accused the NIC of continuing to weaponise ex-parte injunctions in favour of the government against the interests of Nigerian workers in contravention of the Supreme Court’s position on the use of this instrument.
