28th
MINISTER of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria – CBN, Godwin Emefiele has met with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress – NLC.
Monday’s meeting was part of efforts by the Federal Government to avert a nationwide strike following a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to end the naira scarcity in the country by NLC President, Joe Ajaero.
The labour leader had threatened that civil servants would go on strike if the issue was not resolved at the expiration of the ultimatum. This prompted Ngige to invite the apex bank leadership and the NLC to a meeting on Monday to resolve the matter.
The ten-man delegation of the NLC was led by the President, Comrade Joe Ajaero and the General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja while the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele was accompanied by two Deputy Governors, Kingsley Obiora (Economic Policy) and Ade Shonubi (Organised Private Sector).
In his opening speech, Ngige refuted the allegation by the NLC that his ministry did nothing about the matter.
The minister said that on receiving the letter from NLC, he forwarded the same to the CBN Governor before travelling out of the country for an International Labour Organisation Governing Board meeting and directed the Permanent Secretary and Trade Union Services and Industrial Relations Department to follow up.
Emefiele, in his remark, said he called the President of NLC to brief him on steps taken to alleviate the sufferings of the masses, as soon as he received the letter.
Ajaero urged the CBN to improve on their services, regretting the information gap created in the implementation of the naira redesign.
“The NLC could not have stopped CBN from taking good decisions and implementing them in the interest of the nation. If stakeholders were invited and briefed on the policy, when the people complain, NLC would explain everything to them. But in this case, the CBN did it alone. Moreover, it is the wrong time for administering such a national policy” the NLC president said.