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Protesting Nigerian Workers Boo Ngige, Oshiomole, Demand to See Buhari

A rally planned for the Eagle Square in Abuja to mark this year’s May Day was disrupted yesterday as thousands of unionists demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari “must address the suffering workers.”

Nigerian workers have been pressing for as much 300 per cent increase in minimum wage — from the current N18, 000 (less than $50) — to mitigate the impact of official pump price of petrol which jumped from N86 per litre to N145.

The Guardian reports that the drama in Abuja started, when the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, failed to appear in person to address the workers, but said he would only deliver President Buhari’s message to them.

The workers, who claimed to have been deceived on many occasions by Ngige, approached the podium and disallowed further proceedings, warning that they would only listen to the president they voted for in 2015, especially as he had promised to help cushion the sufferings of millions of Nigerian workers.

The scenario, took an uncontrollable twist when former Labour leader Adams Oshiomhole, who is also the immediate past governor of the South-South state of Edo, also mounted the podium to test his popularity thinking it was the solution to calm the aggrieved and disenchanted workers. He was, however, met with stiffer opposition as the chanting crowd booed assuring him of a showdown.

The unfortunate event, threw the dignitaries, including the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and the representative of the Senate President, into confusion. They were later shielded and rescued out of the venue by security men.

The workers, who defied police water tanks, also took over the podium and seized the microphones chanting ‘Ole …Ole’ (thief..thief).

A senior civil servant, Mr. Isaac Omololu, said the large crowd that greeted this year’s May Day celebration at the Eagle Square depicted the apathy Nigerian workers had for the present government.

“Do not be deceived; do not think that we are here to praise government. All the people you see here have ears to hear one thing and that is the possibility of increasing the minimum wage, any other thing short of that is useless.”

“Our own mumu (foolishness) don too much. See how this people dey use us,” Mrs. Jane Yunus, another civil servant said.  “The children of these government officials are abroad studying, yet we can’t pay school fees for our children in Nigeria. We are saying no to their sins.”

The President of a faction of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said government must be held responsible for the suffering of Nigeria’s under-paid workers, even as inflation bites harder.

Wabba told the media that what happened at the event was nothing but a show of pure anger at what the workers are passing through in the last two years.

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Copyright 2017 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.

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