Civil savant and employees working in private organisations yesterday pleaded with leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, to proceed with their decision to shut down the nation through strike, to protest hike in premium motor spirit, popularly known as petrol by the Federal Government.
Our correspondent visited the Federal Secretariat Complex, hosting many federal ministries and other offices of government in Abuja yesterday, and discovered that most workers were pushing for the strike.
“Strike is the only way through which workers have enough rest. And we haven’t had any of such in recent time,” one of the workers who refused to give her name said. She continued: “We need to show President Buhari that we cannot suffer the same fate he made workers in the country face when he was a military leader.
This is democracy. We showed President Obasanjo, we can also show him that we cannot take what is not good for us and our fellow countrymen.”
Similarly, some staff of one of the new generation banks at the Federal Secretariat told our correspondent that they would be glad if labour make good its threat.
One of the bankers who pleaded not to be named said: “We too will benefit from the strike if it begins on Wednesday as planned. We all resume at work early every day.
At least, we will rest for a while if everywhere is shut down.” Even as at 3pm yesterday, workers at the Secretariat had begun to leave for their homes, apparently hoping that yesterday’s meeting of Federal Government with their leaders, which could avert the strike, would fail. Meanwhile, cab operators said they would suffer huge loss if the strike holds. An operator, Mr Adeola Faniran, who spoke with National Mirror, said if he stayed at home for a week without working, his family would starve. “We (artisans) are the ones they want to punish.
At the end of the strike, they will collect their salaries; how about us? We lose on every side; no work, no money.
If I stay at home for a week, my family will have nothing to eat. It is what I bring home daily that we live on,” he said. Meanwhile, similar experiences in the country have shown that civil servants take delight in strike.
They would be paid by government while such action lasts, while the nation loses billions of naira in loss of services.
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