• By Halimah Olamide

Workers under the umbrella of the Nigeria Labour Congress on Tuesday made its vow to stage a nationwide protests against what they called hunger in the country.

The much talked about protests have taken off in Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan and other cities with thousands of participants trooping to the streets to register displeasure over the worsening state of the economy.

In Abuja, protesters took off from the NLC headquarters at the back of the Ministry of Finance with many people carrying placards that speak to the economic situations in the land.

Comrade Joe Ajaero, President of the NLC who led protesters from the NLC headquarters in Abuja said the government has become insensitive to the plight of Nigerians adding that the prices of common foods and other goods have gone beyond the reach of the citizens.

Ajaero said workers had endured enough adding that those in government don’t want to show any sign that they understand the plights of the people.

Ajaero, while handing over the letter of the congress to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Labour, Employment, and Productivity, Senator Diket Plang, said the protest is not about minimum wage but that of hunger.

He said the demands of workers included full implementation of the welfare provisions, employment generation, immediate subsidy to farmers, immediate subsidy to farmers to boost agricultural production, and fixing the four refineries among others.

Ajaero in his remarks at the National Assembly, said Nigerians embarked on the peaceful protests because there was hunger in the land, adding that “Nigeria is becoming like Zimbabwe.”

“You have to understand it. This protest is about hunger. What of those who are not working? The minimum wage, when will it be completed? When will it be implemented? What will be the minimum wage that will remove hunger?”

“The UN said that every the poorest man should be fed on $2 per day. That’s the poorest. And if you have a family of six people, $2 per day by six is $12,” he said while addressing the press in Abuja.

“In a month, you have $360 which translates to about N700,000. Is that the minimum wage you’re talking about? Is that what will feed you? That’s feeding alone. I’m not talking about transportation and accommodation. So what are we saying? What about medical? What are we saying?

“Well, you know, we don’t, we don’t tell them what to do. We will tell them how we feel. There was hunger in the land, but it wasn’t this bad until deregulation. And then after the regulation, we proposed all that we needed to. If they had solved the problem of transportation immediately, they would have solved almost 50% of the problem.

“Because even when you process garri in the village, you need to transport it to town. The expenses you incurred on transportation, you add it to the cost of garri.”

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In Lagos, the protesters, led by the NLC State Council Chairman, Comrade Funmilayo Sessi, led protesters including workers, traders and others on a match towards Alausa seat of government at the time of filing this report.

At the Assembly complex where the workers ended their rally, Sessi said workers needed to make their grievances known adding that they demanded immediate action from the government.

PROTESTERS STORM NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, DEMAND AKPABIO’S ATTENTION

Protesters had made their way into the complex of the National Assembly on Tuesday to register their protests against the state of the economy. The protesters demanded an address from the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio as the chanted Akpabio’s name.

A member of the senate, who is the chairman, Senate Committee on Labour, Diket Plang tried to address the protesters who however rejected his speech saying they preferred to have the senate president himself.

Senator Plang however promised to deliver the message of the protesters to the senate president.