Labour Condemns Naira Scarcity, Seeks FG Intervention

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has condemned continued Naira scarcity across the country, urging the federal government to address the issue with utmost urgency it deserves.

Speaking with LEADERSHIP, NLC president, Comrade Joe Ajaero described the development as insensitivity of the federal government to the plight of the masses who are mainly being forced to spend hours in banking halls without money.

According to the NLC helmsman, “It is very sad and worrisome to note that the poor are being made poorer by the end of the day as they are denied the basic needs of life.

“It speaks volumes of the government’s incompetence that, for almost one month at a stretch, neither the federal government nor the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) is able to address the issue. Many are now being forced to go to bed on empty stomachs and many are being forced to trek very long distances because of scarcity of Naira.

The rich people are not feeling the heat because they use bank transfer while the poor masses are being forced by POS operators to buy Naira with Naira with N500 for every N5,000.”

Ajaero warned against pushing the masses to the wall, noting that, government and CBN’s silence on the pains most people are going through showed that the government is showing less concern about the happenings.

However, he suggested that the CBN should dispatch its workers into all the banks to monitor how money released by the apex bank into all the banks are being used to prevent bank managers from hoarding Naira at the detriment of Nigerians.

Findings by LEADERSHIP showed that most banks are handicapped as they have no money for customers.

For example, customers were forced to wait in hope that some people with cash deposits would come with cash in Access Bank and Zenith Bank at Tejuosho Market, Yaba, Lagos before they could get their money over the counter as all their ATMs had stopped working.