Organized Labour, yesterday, raised the alarm over what it defined as last-minute looting of the treasury via way of means of out-going governors, ministers and different political office holders, calling on President Muhammad Buhari to do the right thing by stopping them. Leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) raised the alarm at yesterday’s National Workers Day Celebration party at Eagle Square, Abuja.
The labour groups warned the incoming government that they would resist venomously any Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) price hike amidst the recent call for subsidy elimination or any other guise.
They spoke as President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, vowed to give more than a minimum wage to Nigerian workers, promising to give them a “living wage.”
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has urged Tinubu to continue to respect workers’ rights, as the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, called on incoming administrations at all levels to initiate, reinvigorate and focus on policies that promote inclusiveness, protect small and medium-sized enterprises, grow the middle class and prioritize infrastructural development.
Also, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, urged the government and employers to prioritize the welfare of workers in the country, with the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, urging workers to reinforce their resistance against anti-democratic forces seeking to take control of Nigeria.
May Day Speech
In the May Day speech, titled: “Workers Rights and Socio-economic Justice,” jointly read by NLC President Joe Ajaero and President of TUC Festus Osifo, Organised Labour called for the investigation of the N12 billion spent by the Aviation Ministry to buy 10 fire trucks.
NLC and TUC urged the Federal Government not to heed the International Monetary Fund, IMF’s advice on the tax increase and all its economic advice “as they are poisonous to our nation’s economic health.”
Among other demands, NLC and TUC asked that “the privatization of the electricity sector be reviewed in favour of Nigerians, and the Judiciary should purge itself and redeem our democracy by handling the various election petitions before it.
The outgoing President must take steps to ensure that those in his administration planning last-minute heists on the nation’s treasury are stopped.”
According to them, the nation’s “economy is on autopilot, struggling on its own to survive, while those entrusted to manage it kept throwing filth and injecting toxins into it.”
cc: Vanguard Ng
