The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, has directed public sector workers in the country to commence a nationwide strike from Wednesday next week.
He also ordered affiliate unions of the Nigeria Labour Congress to be on standby for picketing exercises across all branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) nationwide.
This directive was issued following an earlier ultimatum by the Central Working Committee members of the NLC last week, criticising the cash swap policy of the Federal Government. Ajaero expressed disappointment that the Federal Government and the CBN had not shown any commitment to address the situation.
The NLC President lamented that despite the Supreme Court order allowing the old N500 and N1000 notes to circulate with the new notes until December 31 this year, the situation appears to be getting worse as workers cannot access cash to pay fares to work, nor can they buy food for their families.
At a press briefing on Wednesday at the headquarters of NLC, the apex labour union also criticised the pricing irregularities in the petroleum sector, which they claimed was another cause for concern.
“Last week, we gave an ultimatum for the review of the cash crunch bedeviling the country, but we have discovered to our dismay that as at this moment not much effort has been made to ameliorate the situation. The government is still foot-dragging on these issues we raised,” said Ajaero.
“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 for this exercise,” Ajaero added.
This development is likely to have significant economic implications, as the CBN plays a crucial role in the management of Nigeria’s monetary policy. It remains to be seen how the Federal Government and the CBN will respond to the NLC’s demands, and whether a resolution can be reached before the scheduled strike action.