NLC Declares Nationwide Strike

President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC); Joe Ajaero has directed public sector workers in the country to embark on strike beginning from Wednesday next week.

Additionally, he gave the order for all affiliated unions making up the Nigeria Labour Congress to be prepared for nationwide picketing operations at all CBN branches.

The instruction came after a previous ultimatum given by NLC Central Working Committee members last week in which they criticized the Federal Government’s cash swap program.

According to Ajaero, the Federal Government and the CBN have not demonstrated any willingness to fix the situation, therefore the decision to picket CBN facilities became imperative.

Notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s ruling permitting the old N500 and N1000 notes to circulate alongside the new notes until December 31 of this year, he bemoaned that things seem to be getting worse because workers cannot access cash to pay for transportation, nor can they buy food for their families.

Briefing reporters on Wednesday at the headquarters of NLC, the apex Labour union also criticized the pricing irregularities in the petroleum sector, which was also a cause for concern.

“Last week, we gave an ultimatum for the review of the cash crunch bedeviling the country, but we have discovered to our dismay that as at this moment not much effort has been made to ameliorate the situation, the government is still foot-dragging on these issues we raised.

“Based on this, we met again this morning to review our position and resolved that by Wednesday next week, all CBN branches will be picketed.

“Workers are directed to stay at home too because people cannot eat, workers can no longer go to the office, we have been pushed to the wall, we have decided to take our destiny in our hands, we have mobilized our workers for this exercise,” Ajaero stated.