MEMBERS of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) have begun gathering at the NLC Secretariat in Abuja for a nationwide protest against the rising insecurity across the country.
News Point Nigeria reports that some of those already at the Secretariat include the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, and civil society allies.
Notable among them are Omoyele Sowore and his colleagues in the Revolution Now Movement.
Notable among those on the ground for the protest on Wednesday were human rights activist Omoyele Sowore and his colleagues in the Revolution Now Movement.
There is also a deployment of security personnel on the ground, comprising the police, civil defence, and officials of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Members oif the NLC gathered in groups in and around the premises of the union’s secretariat, awaiting directives from their leadership.
Shortly after their arrival, the NLC president and some leaders of affiliate unions had a closed-door meeting while the majority of the workers gathered in groups in and around the premises of the NLC secretariat, awaiting directives from their leadership.
Ajaero had earlier said that the union’s planned nationwide protest remained sacrosanct.
“I am not sure you have gotten any contrary view that it is not holding. So, unless you have gotten a contrary view, then we can take it from there. The protest is to help this country to call to attention the effect of insecurity,” he stated shortly after a courtesy visit on the Chairman of the nineteen Northern States Governors’ Forum and Governor of Gombe State, Inuwa Yahaya, in Gombe, the capital city of the state.
Ajaero decried the negative effects of insecurity on Nigeria’s economy, particularly how it is turning away investors, saying that insecurity, “is affecting even investors coming into this country”.
According to the NLC President, the protest is aimed at awakening the government to its responsibilities of tackling crushing economic hardships, insecurity, banditry, and other abnormalities in the country.
Citing examples of how insecurity is affecting workers and everyone else, Ajaero said, “Many workers are being kidnapped on a daily basis. People are killed. In the case of Kebbi, the person killed was a teacher.
“The children who are kidnapped are the children of workers. So, we need to ask the government to help them fish out the perpetrators of this.”
While calling on all Nigerians to play a part in ending the negative developments in Nigeria, Ajaero called for a total overhaul of our value system, describing banditry and kidnap for ransom as acts that are alien to our value system as a people.
Speaking further, Ajaero added, “Unless the government is interested in giving us what is called an insecurity allowance because most of the workers kidnapped borrow money, look for someone to pay for their ransom,” the NLC President said.
“So it’s getting to a dimension that we have to equally add our own. We don’t have a gun, we don’t have matchet to go into the bush to look for the people involved, but this is our only contribution, the only way that we are going to tell Nigerians and the international community that this should stop.
“This is not the culture of Nigerians – culture of banditry and insecurity is not the culture of Nigerians. So, we have to condemn it moving forward, and then with that, you strengthen the hands of those in authority to make sure that this does not continue.”