The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has ordered public sector employees to go on strike starting on Wednesday of the following week.
The directive, which came from NLC President Joe Ajaero, came in response to the nation’s ongoing cash crisis.
Also, he gave instructions for the affiliate unions that make up the NLC to be prepared for a nationwide picketing exercise at all branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The instruction came in response to an earlier ultimatum last week from the NLC’s Central Working Committee, which criticized the Federal Government’s cash swap scheme.
According to Ajaero, the Federal Government and the CBN have not demonstrated any willingness to fix the situation, therefore the decision to picket CBN facilities became imperative.
Although the Supreme Court ordered the old N500 and N1000 notes to circulate alongside the new notes until December 31, this year, he noted that the issue looks to be growing worse as workers cannot access cash to pay for transportation to work or to purchase food for their family.
The NLC’s top labor union gave a press briefing on Wednesday and criticized the pricing discrepancies in the petroleum sector, saying that they were also causing concern.
He claimed that because individuals are being forced to purchase our local currency with cash, cash scarcity is exacerbating the crisis scenario in the petroleum sector.
