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Stop acting on IMF’s wicked economic advisories
By Christiana Ekpa & Mustapha Adamu, Kano
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, on Tuesday lamented that Nigerians are dying of hunger due to the economic hardship in the country.
This is as the chapter in Kano State called on the federal government to shun advices from international lenders, International Monetary Fund, IMF, and others which has tendency of further compounding the hardship faced by Nigerians.
He urged the Federal Government to urgently address the situation.
Ajaero spoke at the National Assembly Complex when he led thousands of protesters including civil society organizations in protest against the economic hardship.
“We thank everyone for making this happen. Today has come to pass. They said we should not be but we are here. We are here because there is hunger in the land. History will not forgive us if we do not protest at the level of hunger in the land. It is to signal to the authorities that there is a problem in the land,” he said.
He decried the falling value of the Naira, growing insecurity, and rising unemployment among other issues.
He said immediate measures must be taken to address the suffering, adding that the NLC would decide its next line of action.
The NLC President presented a letter containing their grievances to the representative of the leadership of the national Assembly.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Labour, Diket Plang, who accepted the letter on behalf of the National Assembly said they were aware of the hardship and assured that efforts would be made to urgently address the situation.
He promised the letter would be dispatched accordingly.
Various security agencies were seen stationed around the various entries and exits of the National Assembly particularly the Federal Secretariat axis to ensure the orderliness of the action.
The protesters who were chanting are expected to communicate their message to the leadership of the National Assembly.
The NLC defied several warning and decided go ahead with a protest against the economic hardship in the country.
The DSS had last week warned that some persons are planning to use the opportunity of the planned protests by organized labour slated for 27th and 28th February to foment crisis and widespread violence.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Kano State chapter, has called on the federal government to shun advices from international Lenders, International Monetary Fund, IMF and others which has tendency of further compounding the hardship faced by Nigerians.
The Chairman, Kano State chapter of NLC, Comrade Kabiru Inuwa who stated this while joining the nationwide protest and procession to Kano State government house, said the hardship situation is getting worse on daily basis.
Comrade Inuwa lamented bitterly that Nigerians were further impoverished with the situation.
According to him, “The issue we are talking before the government is for them to allow the masses to breath because we are living in hunger and poverty. Our level of poverty is increasing day by day. Prices of commodities are skyrocketing. Everyday you go to the market, commodity prices increases on hourly basis. This is why we are complaining. They should allow us to breath.
“They should forget about the International lenders policies that is only targeted at creating problem to the African Nations because a hungry man is an angry man.
“We have the believe that the International lenders have no good will or intention on Nigeria. Considering our number, they want to make us more poorer so that there will be chaos in the nation. What we have is enough, we cannot tackle it. Now, many people are being recruited into crimes that are unimaginable in Nigeria.
“We are calling on the government to kindly allow the masses to breath. Ameliorate the hardships and sufferings that at least the masses can put food on their table and send their children to school.
“We are all aware that the International lenders can never give you money without some stringent policies or conditions and part of it is for you to remove whatever you are doing to your masses simply because they want your country to be in chaos and disarray. Although, they did not force us to take their money, it is some greedy leadership that collected their monies and we did not see any impact of the monies amounting to trillions we collected from them,” he said.
When asked what will be the labour union’s next line of actions should the government fail to act after the two day nationwide protest, the NLC Chairman said already the protest is yielding positive results.
“The government have already started taking action. You can imagine, muting the idea of going for protest last Friday, five days after they paid wage arrears for four months. Meaning the money is there but they don’t have the will to pay. What they did is to tell us that they are very cruel, it is only cruelty that will make you to have that money, keep it and refuse to give that money until when they say we are going into the street. We thank God, muting this idea alone has yielded positive result,” Comrade Kabiru however stated.
Receiving the letter, the Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf represented by Head of Service, Abdullahi Musa said plans were underway by the state government to attend to the request by the labour union on issue of wage award in the state.
The Governor also said plans were underway by the state government to put measures in place to ameliorate suffering of the people especially as Ramadan is fast approaching.
He assured the protesters that the state government will look into issues enumerated by the NLC Chairman and act on those within it purveyor while it deliver the letter to Mr. President for actions on issues raised.
