The Benue State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said that it is participating fully in the protest organized by its national secretariat on the current excruciating economic downturn.
The State chairman of NLC, Comrade Terungwa Igbe, who disclosed this to journalists after a meeting with officials of the union in Makurdi said, the state is participating fully in the protest, adding that already, the union has received the support of security agencies whom he also said are going through excruciating hardship, and expressed optimism that the national protest would translate into positive changes for the benefit of the common man.
On measures put in place to ensure the success of the protest is not hijacked by hoodlums, Comrade Igbe said they have met with the State Commissioner of Police, the Director of SSS, Commandant of the NSCDC and other security agencies to ensure a hitch free protest adding that all labour leaders in both former and informer sectors would be in uniforms for easy identification of genuine members.
He noted that if at the end of the protest the federal government fails to respond to the issues, the national secretariat will have no choice but to proceed on strike to ‘shut down the economy’.
“We are joining the strike because most of the issues advanced by the national secretariat are right. Infact the economic aspect of it is very crucial because today you will go and buy for instance cement at the rate of N10, 000 the next day you go to buy it the price will increase to N13, 000, so we want the economy to be stable we don’t want an economy that is unstable. So many things are going wrong in this country and these are some of the reasons why we want to protest.
“The protest will give signal to the government that what they are doing is not correct, so when the signal is given and we go into negotiation, they will know that the people are angry but when you are going into negotiation and you are not doing protest you are not coming out with your own position of what is happening. If at the end of the protest the government didn’t respond, we (NLC) will go on strike and shut down the economy.”
Also speaking, the state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Comrade Michael Vembeh, lamented over the plight of pensioners over non approval of wage increase and pension allowances by the federal government.
Comrade Vembeh however, commended the Governor Hyacinth Alia’s administration for the prompt payment of their entitlements, noting however that the problem of pensioners in the state is non harmonization of their benefits.
He said, “The people (pensioners) are still taking N2,000 so we feel we can approach government on issues like this so that it can take over the matter and get it ratified”.
Expressed optimism that the protest will benefit the masses if the government addresses the problems headlong.
Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Vincent Nyinongo, also lamented the excruciating economic downturn which he said has made it extremely difficult for the people to take care of their families, buy drugs to maintain their health needs and pay school fees for the children.
Comrade Nyinongo described the NLC as the only hope of workers in the country, adding that the situation Nigerians have found themselves in was appalling and stressed that the national protest is the only panacea to the resolution of the problems being faced by Nigerians.
