James Ojo, Abuja
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has warned security agencies to desist from selfhelp in the discharge of their duties or face the wrath of workers.
The union president, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, said one of the low points of 2018 was the excessiveness of law enforcement agents.
“In the out gone year, one of the sore points, was the penchant for overzealous security agents to resort to self-help in the prosecution of their duties.
“By so doing, they forgot that Nigeria is a democratic state governed by laws. We all have a duty to protect our institutions and our fledgling democracy from the perception of abuse and from actual hijack by those whose primary responsibility should be to protect and defend our democratic institutions. The desecration of our courts by the State Security Service is an ill wind that should never blow again,” he said.
Wabba also called for the defence of citizens right to protest, organise and embark on strikes, and freedom of association.
“We wish to remind those in the corridors of power that these rights are guaranteed by the 1999 Nigerian constitution and relevant ILO Conventions, and these rights are fundamental, sacrosanct, inviolable and nonnegotiable,” he said.
Wabba said the new national minimum wage of N30,000 is a law that must be obeyed. He applauded the governors that had started paying the new wage to workers.
“We implore states that are yet to implement the new national minimum wage, including the states that are yet to begin negotiation with labour on the consequential wage adjustment to speedily do the needful.
“In tandem with our position as adopted and communicated after a stakeholders’ meeting on December 11, 2019, organised labour will not guarantee industrial harmony in states that fail to implement the new national minimum wage by December 31, 2019. We direct our state councils to be on the standby to robustly engage state governments that fail to obey our laws.”