Two days after the leadership of Trade Union Congress (TUC ) issued a seven days ultimatum to the federal government to end the current scarcity of naira and fuel, the labour centre again yesterday issued a red alert, directing all its affiliate unions and state councils to brace up for possible industrial action.
TUC national president, Comrade Festus Osifo, who issued the alert said several engagements with government officials have failed to yield positive results in addressing the scarcity.
The directive was issued fifteen days before the 2023 general elections at a briefing with journalists in Abuja.
Although Osifo ruled out the possibility of mobilising members for nationwide protest, he, however, said that the TUC and its comrades in the labour including social movements would begin consultations with various groups in the country to work out democratic, constitutional, and legal means to save the populace from further hardships should the dual scarcity not resolved at the end of its ultimatum next week Tuesday.
Osifo said that Nigerians have been betrayed by the banking system due to their inability to access their deposits in addition to the federal government’s failure to unilaterally deliver on its promises to protect the populace from financial strangulation.
The TUC president who described the current scarcity as a calamity of epic proportions, equally challenged the banks to issue smaller denominations of 100 and 50 naira notes which were not affected by the naira redesign, but paradoxically not in circulation anywhere in the country.
Again, Comrade Osifo added that the lengthy explanations by the authorities on why long queues persist at fuel stations with prices above the official price would no longer be tolerated.
He said, “Nigerians as human beings are angry; justifiably so, and have shown their anger in several ways including through protests, tragically rather than address the issues or try to assuage their anger, the security services under the Presidency is shooting live bullets at defenceless Nigerians.
The TUC demands that President Muhammadu Buhari and his government put an immediate stop to these shootings and bring the culprits to book, the presidency and political class must realize that they are pushing the country down the steep slope of anarchism. Unless they reverse this, they must know that all our collective efforts to build a viable and democratic system would be lost.
“The leadership of TUC shall be monitoring the situation closely within the time frame of our ultimatum and will give further directives should the situation not improve, all Affiliate unions and state councils, civil societies, traders, students our allies, market men and women, religious leaders are hereby put on red alert.
Nigeria belongs to the people, not to the government or the birds of passage who hold power, we should therefore be willing to make the needed sacrifices, if necessary, to salvage the country,” he added.
Comrade Osifo also said the congress stands by any decision reached by the Supreme Court on the deadline to stop the use of old currency notes.
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