The Organized Labour in Anambra state has joined their counterparts across the nation in a peaceful demonstration in protest to hardship and non-review of minimum wage by the federal government.

 

The workers protested from Aroma junction to Anambra State Government House gate chanting solidarity songs and carrying placards with inscriptions like “let the poor breath, review our minimum wage, we are dying of hunger, insecurity is increasing everyday among others.

 

Addressing the state Head of Service, Barrister Theodora Igwegbe who received the workers on behalf of the State government, the Anambra state Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Humphery Nwafor lamented the inflation in the country in terms of feeding, transportation, house rent among others and regretted that government seems unperturbed in the face of all the difficulties.

 

Comrade Nwafor said that the hardship is affecting workers mainly due to the fact that thirty-thousand-naira minimum wage has remained static in the states they are being implemented and noted that workers in Anambra are not comfortable with the process of the pension scheme going on in the state, requesting that it should be stopped till further notice.

 

The NLC chairman who thanked Governor Chukwuma Soludo for the palliative he gave to the workers from September to December last year, called on him to review the palliative upward and recommence it, as according to him, the workers need all the financial assistance they can get in this trying times so as to survive, pointing out that a lot of people are committing suicide on daily basis due to the current inflation in the country.

 

Responding, the Head of Service Barrister Igwegbe explained that Governor Soludo was unavoidably absent because of the building collapse that claimed lives in Onitsha and would have received the workers in person, and said that the governor has human feelings, especially in these hard times.

 

Barrister Igwegbe recalled that Governor Soludo implemented palliative even before federal government and many Governors and as a member of the National Review Committee on minimum wage and also a member of the Economic Advisory Council Team of President Bola Tinubu that he is in a better position to understand what the workers are going through.

 

Earlier, the state chairman of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic’s, Comrade Kingsley Udorji requested the federal government to restore the economy and review upward the minimum wage of workers which he said is supposed to be a take home package, adding that many have resorted to suicide while crime has continued to increase because people are hungry, calling for urgent attention.

 

The presence of police men and other sister agencies were felt as they were on ground to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and other.

 

Meanwhile, other affiliate member unions including the NUJ, RATTAWU, NTI, NULGE, JUSUN, ASUP among others were all present during the protest.

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