Former Labour leader, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, said it’s in order for the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, to get involved in politics.
Oshiomhole made this remark in Abuja against the backdrop of the ongoing nationwide strike embarked on by the Organized Labour largely in protest against the assault on NLC President Joe Ajaero in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
The former governor, however found no merit in the main reason for the ongoing strike instancing the failure of some states to pay the N30,000 minimum wage and the recently announced N35,000 monthly for each worker as better motives to declare industrial action.
“Unfortunately, this strike is not about those issues.
“The Federal Government had granted N35,000 increase. And those discussions were supposed to be for and on behalf of not only the Federal Government but on behalf of all workers in Nigeria, including those employed by local governments and state governments.
“Additional revenue accruing from the withdrawal of subsidy should trickle down to the states and the local government areas.
“I would have wished that somebody in the NLC recognises that the hunger in the stomach of federal employees is not any worse than the hunger in the stomach of those state employees, nor local government employees.
“If these are the issues on the table, even as a senator, I will publicly support action against any government that thinks that we should lament away our hunger while the people do what they do,” the Senator said.
In his remark about the propriety of NLC to be political, he said, “Labour cannot be apolitical because politics is about the people. And I have argued when I was in NLC that nobody has a right to be partisan much more than those who turn the will of our industrial progress.
“You have to be careful not to be seen to be doing the bidding of a particular candidate or a particular political party. As President of the NLC, I made no friends with any politicians.”
