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Economy: Take your destinies in your hand, NLC tells workers

Published

8 years ago

August 30, 2016

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The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has called on Nigerian workers to take their destinies in their hands in the face of the current economic crisis in the country.

The labour union, which criticised the measures adopted by the federal government to tackle the crisis, blamed government for adopting policies that were against the working class.

The NLC President, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, made the call in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital during the 14th NLC’s Rain School with the theme, ‘The Labour Movement and an Alternative Development Strategy’ on Monday.

According to Wabba, gains made by the NLC over the years are being eroded by the response of the government to the current economic recession through non payment of salaries and pension.

Wabba said: “The challenge before all of us is an economy that is technically in recession and our government didn’t seem to get their acts right. Because if you look at the responses, it is geared towards taking away the gains that we have been able to make over the years.

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“These are the only reasons they see in attending to the issues of the recession but I think we have options and those options are issues that we consider at this session. Comrades, it is important also for us to remain vigilant and get connected to our rank and file.”

The NLC President argued that the economic prescriptions of the Central Bank to devalue the naira, increase the pump price and increase taxes had been largely ineffective while also accusing the government of doing all it can to frustrate the call for a new minimum wage in the country.

Speaking further, Wabba said it had become largely impossible for a worker to raise a family of four for two days with the current minimum wage if N18,000.

He said: “The challenge before us is the issue of how to fix the economy because until the economy is doing well, it becomes difficult even for us as the working class to also do well. As I said earlier, the minimum wage is long overdue. As you are aware, we have put formally before government a platform to be created for us to engage the system through a tripartite system as provided by the law.”

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews

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