The Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) has said that the the two- day nationwide protest was not to fight President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Presidency but to ensure that things work better in the country.
The Labour Union said things may have gone wrong before Tinubu assumed power,Mr President needs to act fast and rescue Nigeria from the current hardships .
Addressing workers in Ado-Ekiti, the NLC Chairman, Ekiti State chapter,Comrade Kolapo Olatunde called on Mr President to always talk to stakeholders and technocrats that can give him good advice on how to transform and fix Nigeria.
“It is funny that a group of people were gathering and were saying they are no longer part of us and dissociating themselves from the masses, but we remain resolute, whatever that every commonman and the entire Nigerian workers deserve they must get and we will shall keep fighting for the right of the people.
“Therefore, we are calling on president, who is one of us and we know him as a reputable and person of integrity who will do what is right ans worthy.
“We are not fighting him know things may have gone wrong before he came to power but now that he has taken over mantle of leadership, he needs to always to stakeholders and technocrats that can give him good advice to transform and fix Nigeria.
“We want our country to get better and we know this country is flowing with milk and honey, it is only who does not what to get things done will think and act otherwise. If things done rightly, exchange rate will not go as high as N1900 to a US dollar and other hard currencies. We can continue to suffer like this in a nation that is bless like ours.
“We want to use this opportunity to appreciate Governor Oyebanji for all he has been doing for workers and entire people of the state to ease effects economic hardship on the people.
“In May last year, President Bola Tinubu withdrew the fuel subsidy and because of this , we have been telling the government the if this is done , it will result to hunger among Nigerians, prices of goods and services will go skyrocketed our market women and traders will be experiencing little or no patronage if at all they have goods to sell , then we protested against it but no step was taken.
“But on 2, October, 2023, the federal government call the leadership of the organised labour to a meeting to dialogue with and pacify Nigerian workers and they signed a 15 point agreement with us. But as I am speaking now, has not done anything about the agreement signed with the labour . One of the major part of the agreement is that the refineries will be fixed and will be made to work effectively and nothing has been done about this. Instead of us buying fuel at the rate of N197 per litre we are now buying it at about N700 per litre some are buying it N800 some even more than that .
“They also promised to approve new minimum wage within one to four months but as we speak, it just last month a committee that will look into that was inaugurated and the committee is yet to meet. And this 30 thousand minimum we are taking will expire next month, yet the federal government has not done anything. This is the reason why we are calling on them, that why did you refused to implement the agreement signed into? They are saying they will give our farmers, artisans and others money but nothing was forthcoming.
“They promised to give workers passenger buses being powered being powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) in all states of the federation , we didn’t see any apart from the one Governor Biodun Oyebanji made available to workers in the state.This is why we are staging this peaceful protest before we die of hunger.”