Abuja, NIGERIA — The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has declared a nationwide strike next Wednesday over the lingering Naira scarcity in the country.
The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, who announced this at a media briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, said the congress would picket the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) branches nationwide.
The NLC had last week issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to end the petrol and cash scarcity in the country.
“The NLC is giving the Federal Government and agencies under it, including the CBN and other banking institutions seven working days to address the cash crunch.
“If they fail to do so at the expiration of the seven working days, the Congress is directing all workers in the country to stay at home,” Ajaero said last week.
He also directed that affiliate unions constituting the NLC should be on standby for picketing exercises across all branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria nationwide.
Ajaero said the industrial action became the last resort of the NLC following the expiration of the ultimatum.
He said the decision to picket the CBN branches became necessary as the federal government and the CBN had failed to show any commitment to addressing the situation.
Ajaero lamented that despite the Supreme Court order that the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes remain legal tender until December 31, 2023, the situation kept getting worse.
He said workers could not access cash to pay fares to work nor buy food for their families.
He also criticised the pricing irregularities in the petroleum sector.
“Last week, we gave an ultimatum for the review of the cash crunch bedevilling the country, but we have discovered to our dismay that as at this moment not much effort has been made to ameliorate the situation. Government is still foot-dragging on these issues we raised,” Ajaero said.
“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 mobilised our workers on this exercise.”
The PUNCH reports that the NLC has no fewer than 43 affiliate unions which include, but not limited to, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, the National Union of Road Transport Workers, among others.