VANGUARD
Organised Labour has dismissed claims by the Special Adviser to the President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, that the ongoing nationwide strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, is an ego-tripping move intended to “blackmail the government.”
In a statement, NLC’s Head of Information and Public Affairs, Benson Upah, titled “Bayo Onanuga’s mischief and the tragedy of a nation”, said Onanuga is suffering from selective amnesia.
Why insisting the strike is not a personal matter affecting the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, as alleged, NLC urged Nigerians to ignore the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, because he is known for his overzealous hirelings with the mistaken belief that would earn him the confidence of his principal.
Among others, the statement reads
“If Onanuga were not suffering from selective amnesia, he ought to have known that this government should remain grateful to the organised labour for its uncommon patience with a government that was not prepared for the consequences of its fundamentalist market policies of massive currency devaluation and ‘subsidy’ removal which imposed on Nigerians social violence, upheaval, dislocation,displacement or punishment they never before experienced.
“Onanuga, similarly ought to have known that organised labour, by not opting for a strike as a first option, acted as a bulwark against the rage of Nigerians thereby saving this government from itself.
“Organised labour is not unaware of the misdirected anger of Nigerians for not going for the jugular of this government for justifiable reasons: inflation moved from 19 per cent to 29 per cent; exchange rate from N400 to N1,300; and pump price of Petrol from N187 to N700, in the first five months of this government!
“In light of this, who is punishing “a whole country of over 200 million people”, NLC/TUC or Government of Bola Tinubu?
“Similarly, this strike is not “over a personal matter involving the NLC President, Mr Joe Ajaero, whose error of judgment led to the assault on him in Owerri while he was planning to incite the workers in Imo State into a needless strike”, as casually and callously alleged by Bayo Onanuga.
“However, herein lies the kernel of the matter. Mr Ajaero is General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, and neither he nor any of the members of his union in or outside Imo State is owed a salary/pension payment arrears.
“However, in his capacity as President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, he has an oversight over all the unions affiliated to the Congress including the civil servants and pensioners (core/non-core civil servants, teachers, local government workers, pensioners etc) who have been owed in varying degrees of arrears.
“There have been pending cases of improper implementation of national minimum wage, declaration of thousands of workers as ghost workers, and non-implementation of the agreement reached with the state government since 2021.
“Some of this went to court and the state government asked for time out of court for settlement but did not honour its voluntary agreement as usual. The state government in a written statement did admit it was too busy working to honour its voluntary agreement.
