Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) members have started converging at the NLC Secretariat in Abuja as part of a statewide demonstration against the nation’s growing insecurity.
Some of those reportedly at the Secretariat include the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, and civil society allies.
Additionally, security forces, including police, civil defence, and Department of State Services (DSS) officers, are deployed on the ground.
The majority of the workers converged in groups in and around the NLC office grounds, waiting for orders from their leadership, while the NLC president and several affiliate union leaders met behind closed doors shortly after their arrival.
“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 bemoaned the detrimental impact of insecurity on Nigeria’s economy, pointing out that it “is affecting even investors coming into this country.”
The NLC President claims that the demonstration is intended to make the government aware of its obligations to address the nation’s severe economic problems, insecurity, banditry, and other anomalies.
“Many workers are being kidnapped on a daily basis,” Ajaero stated, giving examples of how insecurity affects both workers and everyone else. People are murdered. The victim in the Kebbi case 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.”
‘Insecurity Allowance’
Ajaero called for a complete revamp of our value system and urged all Nigerians to contribute to putting an end to the country’s negative developments. He described banditry and kidnapping for ransom as activities that are incompatible with our values 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.”
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