Labour set to shut down NASS, entire nation via mega strike

Nigerian workers across the country yesterday moved out en-masse to picket National Assembly in Abuja and other 36 states House of Assemblies over plan to move minimum wage from the Exclusive list.
This is even as they have threatened afresh to shut down the National Assembly and the entire country through mega strikes should the law makers failed to step down the bill sponsored by Garba Datti Mohammed representing Sabon Gari Federal Constituency of Kaduna which attempts to move the Minimum Wage from the Exclusive to the Concurrent list.
In the same vein, the National Assembly leadership has arranged a meeting with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) next week Tuesday to discuss way forward.
Recall that the bill has passed through first and second readings. The bill seeks the transfer of the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List. Currently, the Bill has been referred to the Ad Hoc Committee on Constitution Review. 
In Lagos, workers from different affiliates under the two labour centres have vowed that if NASS does not reject the bill, Nigerians should prepare for a mega strike as they were ready to shut down all sectors of the economy.
The workers who had assembled under the Ikeja bridge as early as 7a.m had a brief encounter with the Police who were trying to debar them from going further on the protest to Alausa secretariat.
The police had equally occupied the NLC secretariat in Yaba with armoured tanks, the same scenario that played out when they eventually made it to the House of Assembly at Alausa. 
But all efforts to stop the workers were resisted and eventually they had their way into the Assembly. 
Traffic along the Obafemi Awolowo way in Ikeja were however disrupted, as motorists had to crawl along with the workers singing and branding several placards. 
The workers who later assembled at the Lagos State House of Assembly, Alausa Secretariat expressed their displeasure over inability to gain access to Lagos Assembly gate before it was later opened to them. There were also heavy security presence in the area. 
At the presentation of a letter to the Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, who was represented by a member of the House and Chairman, House Committee on Accounts, Solaja Saka Nurudeen, Chairman of the Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Funmi Sessi and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) of Nigeria counterpart, Gbenga Ekundayo, said if NASS passed the bill to law, it would hamstring the nation in her efforts to reduce poverty and inequality.
According to them, the obnoxious bill must be stopped immediately to avoid unforseen occurrence that may be worse than EndSARS protest. 
“We do not expect them to come with tools to further enslave Nigerians and that is why we are saying no to this bill,” they said. 
Sessi said removal of this minimum wage will further increase poverty rate couple with inflation and hike in electricity tariff. “Every worker is responsible for other members of his family, so we must not add to our problems”, she said. 
Ekundayo said the private employer will be at liberty to treat workers the way they like once the minimum wage is removed from exclusive list to concurrent list. He said, “This will also give foreigners freedom to use Nigerians as slave. Instead of this obnoxious bill, they should be creative. 
“Time is coming that we will start to recall members of the NASS who fail to protect workers interest. As a result of COVID-19 pandemic, many factories have been closed. If they resist, we are ready to shut down National Assembly and the entire nation via Mega strike.”
Chanting solidarity songs and carrying placards with different inscriptions, the labour unions argued that the bill was tantamount to a negation of the efforts of the Nigerian working class in the past forty years to free itself from the cruel manacles of slave wages, savagery working conditions and slave drivers. 
They said that the premise for their concerns and rejection of the anti-workers, anti-labour, and anti-people bill was as a result of the global standard set for the national minimum wage.
The workers said transferring the national minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list was a license for state governors to drag the country back to the era of ridiculous slave wages, which in the past had precipitated multifarious industrial crises in different parts of the country.
The labour leaders urged Obasa, to take account of the gravity of the malevolent scheme and intervene to guide the members of the State House of Assembly aright when the bill comes before him.
“The concept, rationale and logic for a national minimum wage are to ensure that employees in government and organised private sector, but particularly, the unorganised, the unskilled and the vulnerable in the highly ungoverned space commonly referred to as the informal sector, are included and protected. 
“By protection, we mean that the vulnerable are not overly exposed or exploited by their employers, who pay wages so miserable that they create a community of the working poor. Implications of creating communities of the working poor are obvious and range from very grave socio-economic and the political dislocations,” they said.
Responding, Nurudeen, who said the state’s House of Assembly was on recess, assured the labour unions justice while the letter presented gets to the appropriate quarters.