Naira Gyrate: NLC Fumes, To Meet FG Officials Today

Naira Gyrate: NLC Fumes, To Meet FG Officials Today

By Pius Julius Abuja

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Sunday fumed over the devastating gyrating of the forex crisis on the economy and demanded urgent stabilisation of the naira.

The Congress President, Joe Ajaero, who said this in a statement on Sunday, blamed government officials’ love for foreign luxury products for the free fall of the national currency.

Ajaero warned that the economy was at risk of “a wave of devastating consequences” if the naira failed to stabilise against the American dollar.

The NLC president’s warning came ahead of the organised labour and the Federal Government’s meeting scheduled to be held today (Monday).

At the meeting, the Federal Government and organised labour will review the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding they signed on subsidy removal palliatives.

In a statement titled, “Urgent action to stabilise the naira amidst alarming depreciation,” the NLC president, said repercussions of the weakened currency would be felt by workers and the masses.

While the investor & exporter window has been relatively stable at around N770 to 780/$, the parallel market, where most individuals and businesses get their forex from, traded at over N1,000/$.

“public officials must stop their penchant for foreign goods to check the depreciation of the naira.

“The union had been invited to the State House by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, on the implementation of the resolutions on subsidy removal palliatives.

“Hopefully, we may meet tomorrow (today) with the Federal Government to see whether the agreement with organised labour on the fuel subsidy removal palliatives was met or not.

“If that meeting is to be held, it will be without the Minister of Labour and Employment (Simon Lalong) because we will not be part of any meeting with the Federal Government that the Minister of Labour and Employment will attend.

“You will recall that the decision we had on the National Union of Road Transport Workers was that all parties including the police should leave the premises, pending the resolution of the dispute but that did not happen. Therefore, any meeting we will have with the Federal Government, the minister of labour and employment will not be part of it,” the labour leader vowed,” the President said.

The NLC had earlier accused Lalong of giving support to a faction of the NURTW and encouraging them to conduct their own delegates conference, both zonally and nationally, in a bid to confer legitimacy on the group.

Based on the allegation, Ajaero said the union believed that any meeting with the minister would be a waste of time “since he appears not to be in control of issues as far labour relations are concerned.’’

Confirming today’s proposed meeting, the National Vice President of NLC, Adewale Adeyanju, said the organised labour would inform Nigerians about the outcome of the parley.