BY Kunle Daramola
Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on media and publicity, has described the ongoing protest by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) as a needless one.
On Tuesday, members of organised labour took to the streets of cities nationwide to protest the economic hardship and spiralling inflation confronting the citizenry.
During an interview on TVC, the president’s spokesperson said the federal government is doing everything possible to ameliorate the hardship in the land.
“Any labour union that is speaking to the concerns of Nigerian families, the pains that are being felt by our people, is absolutely free to do so. It is right that Nigerians speak up in difficult situations,” he said.
“And the government has been doing everything possible to alleviate those concerns.
“But we also want to separate the legitimate concerns being expressed by some of the labour unions from people trying to leverage some of the situations in the country to achieve a political agenda.
“We have seen the Trade Union Congress (TUC) pull out of the purported nationwide protest. We have seen the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) pull out of the protest. There is no unanimity behind what NLC is trying to do.
“I believe all of the legitimate concerns being raised by the unions are being tackled by the administration of President Bola Tinubu.”
Despite a last minute intervention, the federal government was unable to convince the NLC to halt the nationwide protest slated for Tuesday and Wednesday.
On February 22, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, minister of state for labour and employment, said there has been substantial progress on the agreements reached with the labour unions.
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