Naira Crunch: NLC set to embark on a Nationwide strike

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is billed to commence a nationwide strike on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.

Joe Ajaero, the NLC president, gave the directive at a media briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, March 22. He also directed that affiliate unions constituting the NLC should be on standby for picketing exercises across all branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) nationwide.

Speaking with newsmen, Ajaero said the industrial action became the last resolve of the NLC after the expiration of the ultimatum given to the Federal government a week ago.

He lamented that despite the supreme court order that the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes remain legal tender until December 31, 2023, the situation keeps getting worse.

He noted that workers could not access cash to pay fares to work nor buy food for their families and also criticized the pricing irregularities in the petroleum sector.

“Last week, we gave an ultimatum for the review of the cash crunch bed£viling the country, but we have discovered to our dismay that as of this moment, not much effort has been made to ameliorate the situation, government is still foot-dragging on these issues we raised.

Based on this, we met again this morning to review our position and resolved that by Wednesday next week all CBN branches will be picketed, workers are directed to stay at home too because people cannot eat, workers can no longer go to the office, we have been pushed to the wall.

We have decided to take our destiny in our hands, we have mobilised our workers on this exercise,” he said.