Members of the Nigeria Labour Congress has began converging at the NLC Secretariat in Abuja ahead of a nationwide protest against the worsening insecurity across the country.
Present at the secretariat are the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, alongside civil society allies. Also in attendance is activist Omoyele Sowore and members of the Revolution Now Movement.
Security presence has been heightened around the venue, with operatives of the police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and the Department of State Services deployed.
Ajaero had earlier insisted that the protest would hold, describing it as necessary to draw attention to the country’s insecurity challenges.
Speaking shortly after a courtesy visit to the Chairman of the nineteen Northern States Governors’ Forum and Governor of Gombe State, Inuwa Yahaya, he said:“I am not sure you have gotten any contrary view that it is not holding. So, unless you have gotten a contrary view, then we can take it from there. The protest is to help this country – to call to attention the effect of insecurity.”
The NLC President decried the economic impact of insecurity, noting that it has continued to scare away investors. According to him, insecurity “is affecting even investors coming into this country.”
He explained that the protest is meant to awaken the government to its responsibilities in addressing economic hardship, banditry, kidnapping, and other challenges confronting the nation.
Highlighting the toll of insecurity on workers, Ajaero said:
“Many workers are being kidnapped on a daily basis. People are killed. In the case of Kebbi, the person killed was a teacher.
“The children who are kidnapped are the children of workers. So, we need to ask the government to help them fish out the perpetrators of this.”
Calling for collective action, he urged Nigerians to reject banditry and kidnapping for ransom, describing them as alien to the nation’s values.
He added:“Unless the government is interested in giving us what is called an insecurity allowance because most of the workers kidnapped borrow money, look for someone to pay for their ransom.
“So it’s getting to a dimension that we have to equally add our own. We don’t have a gun, we don’t have matchet to go into the bush to look for the people involved, but this is our only contribution, the only way that we are going to tell Nigerians and the international community that this should stop.
“This is not the culture of Nigerians – culture of banditry and insecurity is not the culture of Nigerians. So, we have to condemn it moving forward, and then with that, you strengthen the hands of those in authority to make sure that this does not continue.”
