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The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday staged a nationwide protest over worsening insecurity in the country, insisting the federal government must urgently deploy “the full machinery of governance” to reclaim communities, protect workers and restore public confidence.
They also asked the government to ensure that all those behind the funding of insecurity are arrested and prosecuted.
In Abuja, the protest, following heavy security deployment, terminated abruptly as the protesters,who came out in their numbers, were not allowed to go beyond the Ministry of Finance, which is just a few metres away from the Labour House.
The protest commenced between 11:15 a.m. and 11:39 a.m., but NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, and other top labour leaders were not seen during the procession, as they were locked in a closed-door meeting that had lasted several hours.
Earlier, the leader of the Revolution Now Movement, Omoyele Sowore, was sighted at the Labour House in solidarity with the NLC before the commencement of the procession.
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Workers, affiliate unions, civil society allies and journalists started arriving at the venue before 7:30 a.m., but the demonstration did not commence until past 11 a.m., with protesters waiting for directives from the union leadership.
Shortly after their arrival, the NLC president and leaders of affiliate unions withdrew into a closed-door meeting, while hundreds of workers gathered in clusters within and around the secretariat premises.
But before then, Ajaero had debunked the insinuation that after the meeting with President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday night—which lasted until the early hours of Wednesday—the protest had been called off.
Fielding questions on the insinuation, Ajaero said: “I don’t know when we should stop working with insinuation. NLC is an organisation that has its own channel of communication. I am not sure we sent any letter to the media calling off the action, so I don’t know where you got the insinuation. Is meeting with the president the same thing as calling it off?”
Asked about the core demands of labour, he said: “Before now, we did a letter to the president to discuss the state of the nation with him.
That was precisely on June 16. And between that time and now, we have made efforts—a letter through the Minister of Labour, acknowledged; a letter to the Chief of Staff to the president, acknowledged; a letter through the Secretary to the Federal Government, acknowledged—and some of them were acknowledged on the 17th, six months today, and none of them communicated to the president.
“Some of the discussions we wanted to hold with the president concern the issue of security—both physical insecurity and financial insecurity. So, it took this action, which was basically to protest and to list for them the level of financial insecurity that workers are passing through.
“Yesterday (Tuesday), through the Progressive Governors Forum, we were able to secure a meeting with the president, and we listed all these issues, including the crisis in the tertiary institutions. We were clear with him. Of course, he agreed that there should be a negotiating machinery in the tertiary institutions so that it will not be ASUU today, SSANU the next day, and NASU after that. So he agreed on that.
“On the issue of health workers who have been on strike for a long time—JOHESU—we agreed on that, and he gave the governors the channel for getting back to him, interfacing between us and him, because it appears all the bureaucratic channels have collapsed. They are not working together, and I am not sure they meet him.
“We then discussed the issue of insecurity—physical insecurity and financial insecurity—and he said the security situation did not start with him, which we appreciate. But leadership is a continuum, and he said he has done a lot.
“We lamented the issue of equipment for our own security, which he said he has gone far in making sure that in no distant time, the issue of insecurity will be a thing of the past. He also said he has pulled Nigeria out of economic hardship, which we said we want to see translate to the pockets of the workers.”
Ajaero said President Tinubu agreed to meet the National Administrative Council, NAC, of the NLC by January next year so that all the issues could be discussed.
“You can see that these are discussions and actions in progress, but whether people will now translate that to calling off the protest—that is not the position of Congress,” he said.
He explained that the protest was to call attention to the seriousness of both financial and physical insecurity.
The NLC president said the unusual deployment of security personnel was normal, as it was either to protect the workers or to stop the action.
“It is normal,” he said, adding: “The success of any protest is about the number of policemen and DSS that are either sent to secure us or to stop us. Either way, that is success, and we envisaged all these things.”
He, however, frowned at the incessant deployment of security heads to interface with them whenever they had industrial issues.
“We have noticed some reactions from security apparatus, especially the hierarchy, and we want to put on record that industrial relations issues are not security issues. Anytime we have an action, it will be wrong to send the heads of security institutions to negotiate with us. It’s a no-no.
“In terms of labour issues, the Office of the Secretary to the Government and the Ministry of Labour are responsible—not the heads of security institutions, whether that is to intimidate us or not, I have never seen any country where, on labour issues, you call security people to intimidate us or whatever. That’s what we are seeing here now, and I think it should be seen in that perspective.”
He said because of plans to disrupt the protest by security agencies, the NLC had to restrategise and decide its next move. “Do you want us to put all our strategy in the media?” he asked rhetorically.
Addressing workers after the brief procession, Deputy General Secretary of the NLC, Comrade Ismail Bello, said the protest was not for partisan or sectional interests, but for the survival of all Nigerians.
