The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, plans to embark on a nationwide protest to protest a move by the National Assembly to remove the minimum wage from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List.
The NLC in a statement signed by its President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, and Acting General Secretary, Ismail Bello, said its National Administrative Council could embark on a nationwide strike, should the national assembly fail to reverse their decision.
Their reaction followed a plot by the House of Representatives to change the current wage structure which gives the Nigerian government the power to negotiate the minimum wage for workers across the country.
According to the statement, the NLC warned that workers would not tolerate the undermining of their rights by those it tagged opportunistic and narrow-thinking politicians.
Recall that the green chamber had debated a Bill seeking to remove the powers to negotiate wage matters from the Executive to the Concurrent list.
The House cited the inability of some state governors to pay the current N30,000 minimum wage as justification for the move. The Bill, which was sponsored by Garba Mohammed, has passed second reading in the House.
But in a communiqué released after the NLC emergency National Executive Council meeting in Abuja, the NLC President Ayuba Wabba said the congress would resist any attempt to destroy Nigeria’s working class.
Reacting, Wabba in a statement issued after the NLC emergency National Executive Council meeting in Abuja said the congress would fight against ploy to destroy Nigeria’s working class.
He said, “The NEC decided that there will be a national protest, commencing from March 10, 2021, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and especially to the National Assembly. The protest is to make a strong statement that Nigerian workers would not lie low and watch hard-fought rights, which are of global standards, bastardised by opportunistic and narrow-thinking politicians.
“The NEC resolved that the national protest will be concurrently held in all the 36 states of the federation and to the different states’ Houses of Assembly across Nigeria.
“The NEC decided that should the need arise, it has empowered the National Administrative Council of the NLC to declare and enforce a national strike, especially if the legislators continue on the ruinous path of moving the national minimum wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List.”
The NLC also frowned at the hoarding of petroleum products by some filling stations.