Moses Ofodem
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has advocated for a tougher measure against terrorism; banditry, kidnapping, and other vices in the country.
The NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba, made the call at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Wednesday, February 17, in Abuja, during which he said
that rising insecurity in the country is creating an environment of uncertainty.
He said NLC is deeply worried about the rising trend of terrorism and banditry and would not sit and watch Nigerians engage themselves in ethnoreligious squabbles; stressing that “the dangers are too significant to ignore.
“When the security situation in the country started getting out of hands, we called for a `rejig’ of the leadership of our national security apparatus.
“Now that we finally have new sets of service chiefs in play, we demand that the lapses of the old be identified and corrected.
“We call for a new verve of zeal and commitment in the war against terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, communal unrests, and clashes.
“We must never get to that point where we surrender the initiative and paraphernalia of sovereignty to autonomous state actors and to forces of state capture,” he said.
He said that going forward, the NLC would revisit the resolutions of the last Delegates Conference; one that called for strong proactive steps by Congress; to promote the security of lives and property particularly those of workers and their families.
He also noted that the Nigerian economy had continued to go through the challenge imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic; as a result global lockdown of economic and social activities.
“For Nigeria, the story is a tale of mixed fortunes. While the increase in the demand for crude oil has occasioned higher prices in the international commodities market.
“Leaders of our movement, as we all know, we had engaged government; each time they went contrary to our agreement and increased the prices of petrol; or hiked electricity tariff.
“We had successfully forced the hands of government on those occasions to reverse; suspend or reduce the pains they had brought upon Nigerians.
“While we look ahead to a better year for Nigerian workers, the current economic indicators point otherwise,” the NLC President said.