Nigeria’s minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has met with the leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the strike being planned by the union.
The Minister called the meeting on Monday, March 27 to address the impending action by the NLC, set to commence Tuesday, March 28 over the scarcity of naira notes, among other challenges in the country.
The NLC was represented by a delegation of 10 people, including the Congress’ president Joe Ajaero, while the CBN Governor attended with two of his deputies – Kingsley Obiora and Ade Shonubi.
Ngige noted that as part of his efforts to resolve the challenges faced by Nigerians over the naira notes scarcity, he had forwarded a letter received from the Congress to the CBN Governor for immediate action.
He said this in reaction to allegations by the NLC that his ministry had made no efforts to address the issue.
Acknowledging receipt of the letter, Emefiele said funds had been made available to commercial banks to resolve the scarcity, which had persisted across the country over the past two months. He also noted that bank staff were directed to work during the weekends to hasten the even spread of cash.
The NLC president, however, stated that relevant stakeholders were not carried along in implementing the CBN policy, which left many Nigerians confused and agitated.
“NLC could not have stopped CBN from taking good decisions and implementing them in the interest of the nation. If stakeholders were invited and briefed on the policy, when the people complain, NLC would explain everything to them. But in this case, the CBN did it alone. Moreover, it is a wrong time for administering such a national policy,” Ajaero said.
He called for a bridge in the communication gap over the naira policy and assured that the Congress’ National Executive Committee would meet on Tuesday, March 28, to take a decision over the impending strike.
On Wednesday, March 22, workers across the country had been sensitised by the NLC to prepare for a nationwide strike.
Ajaero, who made the announcement, said people had been pushed to the wall, as the unavailability of cash had resulted in unbearable hardship for workers across the country.
