The Federal Workers Forum (FWF) has urged the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) to disregard distractions and diversionary tactics towards weakening the planned October 3, 2023 indefinite strike.
In a statement by its National Coordinator Comrade Andrew Emelieze, the Forum said the labour unions should go ahead with its planned indefinite strike
FWF in the statement expressed its displeasure at the Federal government recent reference to a court injunction “to criminalize strikes and protest in Nigeria”,
“This approach is primitive and laughable, we have gone beyond that stage in Nigeria, whereby the judiciary will be used to intimidating the citizenry.The whole idea of a court order attempting to stop labour from going on strike should be an embarrassment and an indictment to our judiciary system”, it said.
FWF added, “The mere fact that as bad as the situation is , the reference to a court order dated June 5th 2023, confirms the fact that government is really playing politics with the wellbeing of workers and the citizenry”,
“We need not tell our judiciary that protests and strikes are natural, fundamental and inalienable rights recognized by the United Nations. Hence, the court order trying to stop the indefinite strike is illegal and illegitimate”.
It stressed, “We the workers in the federal public service welcome the decision by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) to embark on an indefinite strike action and mass protest nationwide”.
FWF noted further, “As a matter of facts, this action is long overdue as workers and indeed the Nigerian people have been subjected to unprecedented hardship in the past four months due to the unilateral subsidy removal pronouncement by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; which off course has led to the devaluation of our national currency , inflation and mass sufferings among Nigerians.”
“We are surprised that four months into the subsidy removal, the federal government has been mindless to the plights of the federal government workers. The story is better told than experienced. It has been tortuous moments for the federal workers and we have been crippled financially and otherwise. Irreversible and grievous damage has greeted the Nigerian workers in the last four months.
“We are calling on labour to go ahead with the planned action, it is a struggle to free the Nigerian workers and people from mass suffering and the insensitivity of government toward the mass sufferings and hunger in the land. This is a struggle for the survival of Nigerians and it must not fail.
“We therefore call on all federal government workers nationwide to ensure total compliance to the strike action and complete shutdown of all federal government secretariats nationwide. Federal workers are also called upon to join labour in the street rallies and protest march across the federation.”
