The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have suspended their planned strike scheduled to commence today over the continued scarcity of naira notes.
The unions disclosed this yesterday at the end of their National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.
The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said the strike was suspended after receiving briefings from its state councils in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He however warned that the NLC would resume the planned protest if naira notes remain unavailable to Nigerians by the end of two weeks.
The NEC observed that “the CBN has made significant efforts to curb cash scarcity in Nigeria, thus to some extent complied with the demands of NEC that availability of cash has noticeably improved in the major urban centres in Nigeria.
“But in rural communities and towns, cash scarcity seemingly persists, that banks have, however, continued to ration access to cash, thus limiting financial transactions across the nation.
“It does appear that normalcy has not completely been restored as long queues are still visible to allow cash flow seamlessly as before the unfortunate policy.
“To this end, NEC-in-session decides to suspend the proposed nationwide strike planned for today (Wednesday, March 29, 2023), since there is significant improvement in the availability of cash.
“All workers and affiliates are hereby requested to demobilize and stand down every action towards the strike.
“The CBN should ensure that total normalcy is restored to cash availability within the nation in the next two weeks. NLC will embark on a nationwide strike without warning if the cash situation degenerates, instead of returning to normalcy.
“A joint committee of NLC at national and state level is hereby set up to monitor sustainable compliance by CBN towards ensuring that the cash crunch finally comes to an end.”
NLC will embark on a nationwide strike without warning if the cash situation degenerates, instead of returning to normalcy.
Naira, fuel scarcity
Recall that the workers had threatened to embark on an indefinite industrial action today, and to picket branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) across the country if the issues of cash crunch, fuel scarcity and electricity tariff increase are not addressed by the government.
In a last-minute attempt to avert the impending strike, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, met with the leadership of the Congress on Monday to review efforts to make the banknotes available.
Emefiele disclosed that a large volume of funds was made available to the deposit money banks and were directed to open their branches on Saturdays and Sundays and they complied under strict supervision by the CBN.
Prior to the suspension, Ngige had informed that the federal government had started a conciliatory move with the NLC over the union’s threat to embark on the nationwide strike.
He said the government had “apprehended” the situation after inviting the NLC leadership and the CBN to a meeting.
He said: “Members of the council reside in the states and in the local governments so they will come up today, which is Tuesday, the 28th, to review the situation because much as it is, the important thing is that we have emphasised to them that we have apprehended this dispute.
“By Section 7:8 of the Trade Dispute Act, once the minister apprehends and starts conciliation on it, you maintain the status quo ante bellum. So they have gone back now to review the situation.
“If they’re not satisfied with what they see, they will come back to me and I will invite the CBN again.”
