Protesters affiliated with the Organized Labour group stormed the National Assembly (NASS) building on Wednesday morning, demanding a reassessment of what they call the “anti-people” policies of the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
Senators reportedly went into an urgent closed-door session as demonstrators relocated to the Assembly Complex’s second gate.
Today, protests were launched in the FCT of Abuja, as well as in the states of Lagos, Abia, Plateau, Kaduna, Kano, Rivers, Zamfara, Katsina, Cross River, Ebonyi, Enugu, Kwara, Ogun, Imo, Ondo, and Edo. The protests were organized by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and their affiliate unions.
At the Unity Fountain, the hundreds of demonstrators formed a human chain and marched to the NASS Complex.
Godswill Akpabio, president of the Senate, is scheduled to speak to the demonstrators before today’s confirmation hearings for ministry nominees.
There is “nothing stopping the protest, not even an overture from the government,” NLC President Joe Ajaero told Channels Television near the Unity Fountain.
He promised that the demonstration would continue until the government acted as the unions had hoped.
Whether “the protest will be from today, tomorrow, next, or till thy kingdom come, it is not by using force,” as Ajaero put it, will depend on the response from the states.
To make a point that “since we started negotiation, that there is nothing we have in our hands,” he stated, “we are here for the protest.”
Remember that in his inaugural address on May 29, 2023, President Tinubu announced that he was ending the government’s gasoline subsidy, sending food prices and inflation soaring to record highs along with them.
The National Labor Congress (NLC) has given the Federal Government seven days to respond to the NLC’s demands, which include “the immediate reversal of all anti-poor policies of the federal government,” such as the recent increase in the price of PMS (Premium Motor Spirit), the increase in public school fees, and the release of the eight months withheld salary of university lecturers and workers.
The union also requested an increase in the minimum salary from N30,000 to N200,000, claiming that Nigerians have been living in fear ever since the President’s “subsidy is gone” inauguration speech on May 29, 2023.
Attempts at easing the suffering of Nigerians as a result of the elimination of the petrol subsidy were unsuccessful despite several meetings between the Presidency and the unions.
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