Organised labour and its civil society allies are holding a nationwide mobilisation and mass protest to force the government into action.
This is coming after the Federal Government’s refusal to send a draft bill on N30,000 National Minimum Wage to the National Assembly to legislate into law.
‘’This serves as a statutory notice for Organised Labour to recall our suspended nationwide industrial action.”
Reinforcing the threat that a nationwide strike could start at any time without further notice, President of United Labour Congress of Nigeria, ULC, Joe Ajaero, said though no date had been fixed for the commencement of the strike, it could start the next day after the national protest.
He said: ‘’It can start today, it can start at anytime. We agreed during our meeting (of leaders of organised labour) on December 20, 2018, in Lagos that the December 31 deadline given to government to send a draft bill to the National Assembly to legislate on the N30,000 minimum wage recommendation by the Tripartite Committee, serves as a final notice to the government for us to resume the suspended November 6, 2018 nationwide strike.
‘’What that means is that a nationwide strike can start today, tomorrow or next without further notice to the government.”
Ozo-Esan in a statement, entitled: “Tomorrow (Tuesday) is a day of protest and mass mobilisation,” read:
“It has come to our attention that a section of the news media has largely misrepresented our action plan in reaction to the delay in transmitting the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee on a new National Minimum Wage to the National Assembly by President Mohammadu Buhari.
“We immediately announced then that on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, there will be a nationwide mass mobilisation and protests simultaneously across all states in Nigeria. This does not translate to a strike. It is on record that each time we had cause to embark on a national strike, we say so publicly without any equivocation.
‘’When a date is decided for the commencement of a strike subsequently, we will inform the public appropriately.”