–Insists on taking over Labour Party from Julius Abure
By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
THE Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has said that the resolute stand of the Congress President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, is responsible why Nigerians are not buying a litre of petrol at N1,500.>>>>CONTINUE READING HERE
The NLC has also maintained its insistence on taking over the Labour Party from the Julius Abure led National Executive Council, NEC.
Speaking exclusively to Vanguard, the NLC Head of Information and Public Affairs, Comrade Benson Upah, said that it was the strong character of the Congress President, Comrade Ajaero, that had made the government to be careful in increasing pump price of petrol.
Greed, corruption greater sins than homosexuality, gambling – Sanusi
He also said that the Ajaero leadership is responsible for the wage award of N35,000 from the government, adding that the NLC is committed in ensuring that the next national minimum wage will be an amount that would take workers home.
Comrade Upah said that the NLC President is making sure that negotiations are concluded on time for workers to have something that would take care of the inflation and hardship in the country.
“So the most important thing is that he is insisting that the minimum wage conversation be consummated within the appropriate timeframe,” he said.
Asked what benefits workers have derived from the Ajaero led leadership in about one year he became the NLC President, Upah said, “First and foremost, wage award is the immediate but there are others.
“We signed two MoU’s (Memoranda of Understanding) with this administration (of President Bola Tinubu). The first was on the 5th of June 2023. The second was on the second or third of October 2023. Look at the contents of those MoUs. The wage award, the decision of government to restore or to accept to pay the withheld salaries of the four university based unions, NASU, NAAT, SSANU and ASUU, this was part of it.
“I also want to tell you but for the resolute stand of NLC under Ajaero, Nigeria should have been paying much higher tariff for petrol, by now, it wouldn’t have been N700 or N800. I tell you we would have been paying N1500. But government is being careful of crossing the threshold. It knows that if it does that NLC will mobilize to the streets, NLC will mobilize the citizenry against it. So because of this, we are stuck where we are at six hundred and something naira and N700.”
He further said, “The next thing which will be considered as his achievement is, he has been speaking out, he has been making interventions on a number of issues including the state of insecurity, hunger in the land, anger in the land and what appears to be the shutting down of the democratic space. He never kept quiet he has been talking and acting.
Tax the rich, Subsidize electricity for the poor, Obi tells FG
“Quite unfortunately, when he does those things, some critics say oh he has a political agenda. That it is because Labour Party did not win the national election that that was the reason why he was behaving the way he was doing.
“Once again, nothing could be farther from the truth. The stage in which we have found Labour Party in fact, comrade Joe met Labor Party the way it is. I’m making this point today because people try to ethnicize quite a number of things. I mean that he does. They say because he comes from the same geo ethnic place with Peter Obi. I mean the presidential candidate of Labour Party, that his sentiments were decidedly against APC, but it’s not true.
“At the time Obi crossed over to Labour Party, Comrade Joe Ajaero hadn’t become president of NLC, he wasn’t. All that was done by his predecessor, a northerner. So for us, we don’t look at issues from the prisms of religion, or ethnicity. We look at issues purely from the prism of ideology. And we’re not guided by other sentiments. We’re guided by our national interests. We’re concerned about the security of this country, the sovereignty of this country. These are our stronger motivations. We love this country more than anyone.
Speaking on the crisis in Labour Party, he said, “The achievement of Comrade Joe in this direction will be that he is striving to recover the party from the wrong hands. From the Abure’s of this world who sees the party from the backdoor. And what Comrade Joe has decided to do was to toe the fighting spirit of his predecessor, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, who also wanted to recover this party.
“So what Comrade Joe is doing is to ensure that there is an end to this impunity that there is an end to this illegality by saying let the content of the consent judgment be observed.”>>>>CONTINUE READING HERE
