Nigeria Civil Service Union Foresees Social Unrest, Advises FG To Address Economic Problems

By Ayodele Oni

The Nigeria Civil Service Union, (NCSU) ended its 111 celebration in Abuja on Saturday with a call on the Federal Government to urgently address the various economic crisis in the country to avoid social unrest.

NCSU National President, Sunday  Oluwole, and General Secretary, Ibraheem Bomoi, who spoke at the event pointed out that “Federal Government should see wisdom in some solutions proffered by the Organized Labour in Nigeria towards moving the nation forward.”

In a communique at the end of the celebration, with the theme, “NCSU @ 111 years in the place of history: The progenitor of nationalists and trade union movements in Nigeria,”  the Union warned that the present situation in the country might snowball into spontaneous social unrest if not quickly addressed by the Federal Government.

The Union listed issues which required urgent attention to include: “bringing back to life the four monumental refineries, reversal of tuition fees increment, wage award to workers to address present economic hardship, upward review of living wage and rolling out sustainable impactful palliatives to mitigate the present economic hardship.”

The NCSU lamented that recent independent research showed that “critical issues affecting the country, ranging from fuel subsidy removal and its attendants effects on the entire populace had further increased the number of multi-dimensionally poor Nigerians to 187 million (out of over 200 million Nigeria population).

“The economic hardship has dehumanized the entire populace; there is high transportation cost, high cost of living, Nigerians are presently traumatized psychologically.

“The meeting hereby calls on Federal Government to address the issue squarely by fixing the four Nigeria refineries, rejig the economy with sound economic policy and review the living wage for workers.

“The meeting passed a vote of confidence on the leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) led by Comrade Joe Ajaero and entire Organized Labour in Nigeria in consonance with their positions on the present state of the nation.

“The meeting expressed its reservation over the new trend of abuse of roles by the Nigeria Police and the Judiciary as manifested in their activities in recent time, gradually rendering Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment inactive in carrying out its statutory functions.

“The meeting also called on the office of Head of Civil Service of the Federation to desist from meddling with the right of unions to organize its members within the framework of their respective constitutional provisions especially as far as the tenure of its elected members are concerned.

“Consequent upon the above, the meeting advocated for the state of emergency to be declared to enable stakeholders in Trade Union movements arrest this ugly trend in industrial relations practices in Nigeria.

“The meeting discussed the genesis of crisis bedeviling the Union in the Federal Inland Revenue Services and called on FIRS management to extend its olive branch by obeying the court order that directed the management of FIRS to allow NCSU to operate in FIRS to allow fair weather industrial relations practices in line with international best practices.

“The meeting expressed the commitment of the national leadership of the Union, more than ever before, to begin empowerment programme that will guarantee self reliance of members to engage in trade work that can bring income to the family aside from monthly salaries.

“To this end, the union will focus on gender equity and equality while women empowerment will be used as a template to kickstart the programme.”