NLC can’t withdraw from protest it didn’t plan — Ajaero

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has dismissed a report that it has withdrawn from the planned #EndBadGovernance protest.

Joe Ajaero, president of the NLC, in a statement on Wednesday, debunked the report, stating that the NLC could not have withdrawn from a protest it did not organise.

The planners of the protest billed to commence from August 1 to 10, seek to draw the attention of President BolaTinubu-led Federal Government to growing hardship, hunger and unbearable prices of goods and services since the announcement of petrol subsidy removal in May 2023.

Read also: Address current economic hardship or face mass protests, varsity students tell FG

Nigeria is currently contending with a record high inflation rate at 34.19 percent in June 2024 due to the two-time devaluation of the naira and removal of the petrol subsidy.

The inflationary trends have raised Nigeria’s interest rates by a combined 800 basis points from 18.75 per cent last July to 26.75 percent as the central bank continues to deploy monetary tools to restore the battered economy.

Ajaero, who described the report as “patently false”, had, in a previous statement, called on President Bola Tinubu to dialogue with the protest organisers.

“The truth is that the Nigeria Labour Congress cannot withdraw from a protest that it did not organise. It is only the organisers of the speculated national protest can decide to pull out or continue with the protest.

Ajaero explained that the NLC has internal trade union mechanisms, especially leadership decision-making processes that its industrial actions such as protests pass through before such activities are undertaken.

“Yet, the fact that the Nigeria Labour Congress is not the body organising the protest does not mean that organised labour is oblivious of the dire living conditions Nigerians have been subjected to by the harsh economic policies of the government.

The NLC president in the statement he signed said the labour movement was in “solidarity with the Nigerian people in this very trying and excruciating times.

“Pursuant to proactive engagement with the issues canvassed by the protest organisers, we have called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to invite the leaders of the protest movement to dialogue on their demands.

Read also: DSS arrest man distributing ‘hardship Protest’ materials

“We have advised that it would be counter-productive for the government to meet the widespread anger in the land with brute force.

The labour union again appealed to the federal government as well as the governments at the sub-national levels to listen to the cries of Nigerians over the prevailing economic hardships

“Once again, we implore the Federal Government and the sub-national governments to listen to the cries of the Nigerian people and do the needful. After all, it is said that the voice of the people is the voice of God”, Ajaero said.