A group of aggrieved civil servants of Zamfara State have protested peacefully at the venue of the Workers’ Day celebration in Gusau, the state capital, demanding the immediate dissolution of the leadership of the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, for what they described as incompetency.
According to the group, Labour leaders are playing politics with the welfare of the workers, pointing out that the civil servants have not been paid their salaries and allowances since February 2023 and the union leaders remain unconcerned.
They lamented that even the N30,000 minimum wage they claimed that they have agreed with the state government and would take effect from November 2022 has not been implemented up till now.
“Our labour leaders are toothless bulldogs and we are at the receiving end. We are therefore mobilising for the dissolution of the leadership of the NLC in the State,” one of the aggrieved workers told press.
According to the angry civil servants, some pensioners have not received their pensions for over eight months now. They lamented that these people served the state government sincerely for 35 years only to be punished with hunger and starvation even when they have leaders.
Reacting, the Zamfara State chairman of NLC, Comrade Sank Haliru said that the aggrieved civil servants did not know the struggles the Labour forces have put up to get the state government committed to clearing the backlog of arrears of workers’ salaries and allowances. He lamented that it was very unfortunate that the government did not keep its promises.
He noted that the state’s chapters of NLC and TUC will still be mounting pressure on the government to ensure that workers’ salaries and allowances are paid before the end of this month.