The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC ) has reacted to the Monday night broadcast of President Bola Tinubu, saying that the President’s speech appeared to be out of touch with reality and anomalous with the hardship and suffering that most Nigerians are going through at the moment.
The Labour Centre said that the promises and assurances made by President Tinubu were not the “silver bullet” that Nigerians expected.
In a statement issued late Monday night, NLC national president, Comrade Joseph Ajaero, expressed dismay over what he called the President’s failure to rather speak on resuscitating Nigeria’s refineries as the major pain point in the fuel subsidy narrative.
The Labour leader also stated that the President’s statement on “working with organised labour to review the national minimum wage” was out of sync with what has played out since he had removed the petrol subsidy.
Ajaero said even the sub-committee on wage award had not been inaugurated nor ever met to discuss issues of wage review.
He maintained that until the Organised Labour see real commitment by government to do the needful to improve the lot of Nigerians and ameliorate the sufferings of workers and ordinary Nigerians, it remained committed to continue the struggle.
On the claims of interventions by the federal government through palliatives, loans and conditional grants to poor Nigerians and provision of CNG buses, the labour leader said Nigerians were used to such promises which have never produced any verifiable and meaningful changes in the lives of citizens.
“Consistent with our perception of the misalignment of Mr. President’s promises and offerings to the reality faced by millions of workers and ordinary Nigerians was the failure of President Tinubu to unmask those behind the looting of Nigeria’s commonwealth under the guise of petrol subsidy.
“It is unacceptable for the President and Commander-in-Chief to lament like ordinary Nigerians about a group that Mr. President routinely referred to in his speech as the “elites of the elites” who have stolen so much from Nigeria that they have become so powerful as to constitute a threat to democratic governance, what Nigerians expected from Mr. President is a firm commitment to bring these economic saboteurs to justice and recover what they have stolen”, Ajaero said.
He added, “In all the meetings scheduled by the government, Organised Labour has been forced to negotiate with empty chairs on the federal government’s side as the federal government has not matched its public promises with firm commitment to negotiate in good faith with labour.”
The Congress further stated that the Organised Labour was disturbed that while President Tinubu in his speech lavishly praised the private sector for quickly dispensing wage award to their employees, the federal government has failed to do the same for public workers in its employment.
According to the Labour Centre, this is a clear case of failing woefully to live up to the standards it has set for others to meet.
“It is open knowledge that the review of the national minimum wage is a matter of the law which is expected to happen in 2024, how would Nigerian workers cope with the current reality of hyper inflation and suffering unleashed by the hasty removal of the so-called petrol subsidy till 2024 when the national minimum wage would be reviewed? This is incredible.
“We wish to assure Nigerians that the Nigeria Labour Congress remains committed to matching discussions with government with the current realities of sufferings that Nigerians are going through,” Ajaero stated.
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