Labour Strike: ACF Welcomes FG And Labour Unions Truce

• ACF welcomes the agreement between the FGN and labor unions but cautions against accepting discredited policy solutions from multilateral finance organizations
• The ACF emphasizes the need for a balanced approach to economic policy administration and cites the experience of Southeast Asian nations

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has welcomed the agreement reached by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and the country’s joint umbrella body of labour unions, specifically the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

However, it warned against blindly accepting out-of-context and largely discredited public policy solutions advocated by multilateral finance organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Professor Tukur A. Muhammad-Baba, the ACF also warned that much more needed to be done in the country’s economic policy administration.

The press release states, “It should be instructive to our policymakers that Southeast Asian nations pulled themselves out of the economic crisis of the 1980s and 1990s by largely ignoring, not by accepting, the policy prescriptions of the multilateral agencies.”

According to the ACF, these negative economic conditions were felt more acutely in Nigeria’s northern states, which “are largely the most agrarian segment of the country with the lowest per capita incomes, poor scores in all indices of economic development and standard of living measures, etc.”

“While sympathizing with organized labour, ACF has been concerned, apprehensive, and concerned that a protracted labour strike would amount to a double jeopardy for the people of the North, who are already disadvantaged, as previously stated.” “A clear middle ground was indicated.”

Anambra NLC To Demand Arrears Of Federal Govt N35,000 Wage Award

Comrade Humphrey Nwafor, chairman of the Anambra State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has stated that his leadership will press for the state civil servants to be paid the arrears of the N35,000 provisional wage approved by the federal government for its civil servants, which formed part of the agreements reached between the federal government and organized labour that averted a nationwide strike scheduled to begin yesterday.

He did, however, state union leaders would wait for a directive from the NLC’s national leadership on how the unions in the state should engage their respective state governments on the N35,000 provisional wage.

The state NLC leader told LEADERSHIP exclusively that both state and local government workers were hopeful of benefiting from the N35,000 provisional wage approved by the federal government for its employees because the agreement between the federal government and the leadership of organized labour stipulated, under item number 10, that state and local government workers should benefit from the same gesture as federal government workers.