There was total compliance by the civil servants in the ongoing nationwide strike embarked upon by organized labour unions to press home their demands for new minimum wage in Nasarawa State.
A visit by our Correspondent to some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of both federal and state governments in Lafia, the Nasarawa state capital on Monday showed that all the offices were shut.
Official activities including schools, hospitals, courts, banks and emergency management agencies and other essential services in the state were paralyzed due to the impact of the strike.
The national headquarters of organized labour had last week Friday directed all states councils to commence an indefinite strike on Sunday midnight over the inability of the Federal Government to meet it’s demands.
Besides labour officials who were out to monitor the level of compliance, security personnel were sighted manning gates and entrance at official buildings and other utility services to prevent hoodlums taking advantage of the strike when our Correspondent visited those areas within Lafia metropolis and it’s environs.
Some workers who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said that the action taken by both the NLC and TUC leaders were right steps in the right directions.
Also speaking to our correspondent some students of Isa Mustapha Agwai 1 Polytechnic Lafia, and the Federal University of Lafia decried the effect of the strike on their studies and called for urgent resolution of the crisis for the interest of the masses.
The Nasarawa State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Ismaila Okoh and his counterpart,Trade Union Congress (TUC), comerade Muhammed Umar-Doma who led other officials to monitor compliance told journalists shortly after a meeting that there was no going back over the strike until their demands were met.
The dou however, directed all the affiliate unions to down tools pending the directives from the national headquarters of the labour unions.
“Principally this meeting was summoned to intimate all the affiliates and to enforce the directive given by the national secretariat to comply with the industrial action across the 13 local government areas of the state to enable them put in place on how to enforce the indefinite industrial action”
They, however, expressed displeasure over the low turnout of over 70 affiliates in the state, affirming that they have monitoring and enforcement teams that have been activated and would go around offices across the state to ensure a total shutdown.
“Looking at the reality on ground in Nigeria and Nasarawa state at large N60,000 cannot afford a bag of rice. Are they saying that we should abandoned our primary responsibilities to Jion jon politics to collect the jumbo pay, who is going to do the work? It sounds funny. It is a mastery to a common workers in Nigeria.”
They called on president Ahmed Bola Tinubu and all the critical stakeholders in politics to look inward and have a human face to address the plight of workers and increase the minimum wage, lamenting that if the issue is not tackle with all sincerely it go a long way in bringing the nation’s backward.
“We received letter of directive from the national secretariat since Friday last week and we had earlier gave a directive to our various constituencies for us to meet today to discuss a way forward,”
“As you are all aware it is no longer news that the two federated centers in Nigeria have declared strike on the issues of minimum wage and the electricity tariffs in Nigeria.
“This strike is long over due and everybody in this country knows that workers situation in Nigeria is terribly bad.
Workers cannot longer fuel their vehicles to their working place, cannot longer pay school fees of their children, cannot longer eat three squares meals in a day and cannot longer pay their medical bills,” they expressed worry.
“N60,000 they said they have offered is nothing compared to the economy realities of today and we expected them to tell us the indices. How can we survive the economy hardship”
“We are all aware of the jambo salaries that the National Assembly and the political classes are receiving per month,” they stated”
They, therefore, called on the affiliated bodies to take the strike seriously, saying that this their fight and there was no going back.
“We want to say with a very clear and loud voices to the whole world that Nasarawa State organize labour is in support of what the NLC and TUC are doing at the top.
“We want to appeal to our National leaders that they should never call off the ongoing industrial action untill when agreement is reached and signed that is the position of Nasarawa state,” they concluded.