Organised Labour has suspended its proposed strike and picketing of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) offices over scarcity of naira notes. The industrial action was to begin today.
President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, and his Trade Union (TUC) counterpart, Festus Osifo, yesterday, in Abuja, said the movement would monitor the situation for another two weeks before unveiling its next move.
Ajaero said: “A day or two after we briefed you here, the CBN deputy governors came here and we had a fruitful meeting. We gave them proposals on how best to solve the problem, and immediately after that, they swung into action, and they have done averagely well.
“With reports coming from all states of the federation on the level of compliance by banks, we’re happy to tell you that yes, there is compliance by the CBN.
“After NEC (National Executive Committee) meeting, we doubted the sustainability of that compliance and we don’t want to be calling you back after two days. We want to monitor this compliance for the next two weeks to see whether it is sustainable because they are forced to move money to commercial banks, and some of those commercial banks are getting empty again, queues are returning in some of them, so it will be very naive for Congress to horribly call off the action, whereas we’re not shutting down tomorrow (today).”
On his part, Osifo, who corroborated Ajaero, said there was a need to benchmark government, not just concerning scarcity of cash, but the challenges associated with fuel products and unending queues, including electricity tariff.
He insisted that the apex bank had eroded the confidence of Nigerians regarding its monetary policy, hence the need to restore that confidence within the two-week grace.
Similarly, Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, yesterday, confirmed the suspension. The NLC had issued a seven-day ultimatum for the Federal Government to cause the CBN and the commercial banks to end the cash scarcity, failure of which it warned of a nationwide protest and picketing of branches of the apex bank.
Addressing newsmen when he appeared on the weekly ministerial briefing, anchored by the Presidential Communication Team at the State House, Abuja, Ngige said dialogue, coordinated by his ministry, had happened and the CBN had taken steps to remedy the situation.
The Guardian
