NLC Chairman Ajaero advises Tinubu on how to avert proposed protest

The leadership of the groups preparing to stage protests over the current hardships in the country should have a conversation with President Bola Tinubu, according to Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress. It is their right to protest if they so choose.

Millions of Nigerians are, in fact, furious about the status of their country’s economy, according to Ajaero, who personally drafted and sent the statement to the media in Abuja on Monday.

The NLC boss asserts that the government needs to step in seriously to address the issue of most Nigerian families being compelled to eat one boring meal a day and the perception that eating out of a dumpster is now a luxury.

Ajaero stated that the International Rescue Committee (IRC) asserts that approximately 32 million Nigerians have experienced acute hunger in the first three quarters of 2024, supporting a recent country living standards index assessment by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that found that approximately 133 million Nigerians live below extreme poverty lines.

In his words, one can easily situate the misery, suffering, disappointments, and despair that many Nigerians are currently experiencing when these statistics are added to the millions of people who are being recruited into the armies of the unemployed and underemployed Nigerians.

He said: “The truth is that Nigerians have been hard pushed and super pressed right against the walls of deep deprivation and acute want.

“It is, therefore, condescending and dismissive to describe the daily brutish ordeal that Nigerians are going through as sponsored political dissent. Even if it is so, it is still within the confines of citizens’ rights to protest on political grounds.

“Just that the current unease in the country does not need political motivation to spark and splurge. All that the hurting citizens demand from their government is a listening ear and an empathetic heart. Maybe that is what the organisers of the protest are looking for, given their continued notices on different social media platforms.”

“It is very difficult to tell a Nigerian who has lost his or her job due to the current economic downturn to maintain their cool. It is very tough to advise a nursing mother who is unsure of the next meal for her suckling child to be at ease. It is a herculean task to demand patience from a youth who has been out of school for the past six years without a job and is burdened with aged parents to cater for.”

According to the President of the NLC, Nigerians’ freedom to voice grievances must be fully honoured in these extremely trying times. Recent years have seen the organised labour movement, led by the Nigeria Labour Congress, raise protests against the harsh economic policies of the government that have resulted in immense suffering throughout the nation. These policies include the skyrocketing price of refined petroleum products, the cost of electricity rising and becoming unavailable, the unjustifiable increase and duplication of user access fees to most public utilities, including waste disposal, water treatment and hospital.

A warning to the Federal Government, he stated that the Congress has determined that bellicosity and hostility towards the protesters and other resentful Nigerians do not provide a practical solution to the suffering of the people or their frustration at having so little in a nation where a small number of privileged people live in outrageous luxury, especially at the expense of the majority.

His words: “As the date for the widely reported national protest looms, the Nigeria Labour Congress urges President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to invite the leadership of the protest movement for discussions on their grievances.

“These are dire times. Nigerians are angry. The times require government to “jaw-jaw” and not “war war” with Nigerians. The truth is that you cannot smack a child and, at the same time, ask the child not to cry. A stitch in time might still save nine. Solidarity forever.”

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