Workers in Ebonyi State under the umbrella of the Nigeria Labour Congress have joined their counterparts across Nigeria to protest the worsening hunger and economic hardship in the country.
The protest, which was massively attended on Tuesday, impeded human and vehicular movements.
This was between the hours of 8am and 12 noon on major roads within Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.
Workers bearing placards with various inscriptions such as: ‘Tinubu, end hunger in Nigeria;’ ‘Tinubu, end poverty in Nigeria,’ were seen chanting emotional songs, calling on President Bola Tinubu to, as a matter of urgency, ameliorate the sufferings in the land.
The state Chairman of the NLC, Comrade Ogugua Egwu, in his address decried the unbearably high cost of living, hunger and hardship in the country.
Ogugua also raised grave concern over the galloping inflation in the country and the continuously declining value of the naira in the international market.
He likened the current Nigeria’s situation to a faulty airplane gradually heading towards crashing, and prayed to the Federal Government to reason with workers to save the country from crashing.
Ogugua stressed: “One wise man said that Nigeria presently is like a gradually crashing airplane, the moment it hits on the ground, it completely crashes.
“We shall continue to make our voices to be heard in our struggle to drive poverty out of the life of every Nigerian.
“It is because of you that Nigeria has not collapsed, and we pray that it will not collapse.”
The Labour leader commended the workers for their Solidarity in spite of discouraging realities.
Egwu added: “In a day like this when some of us didn’t eat yesterday so as to muster strength; in a day like this when suffering has become a symbol in Nigeria; in a day like this when we eat suffering just to live; in a day like this when stomach infrastructure has become something very far, Comrades, yet you found time to come and make your voices heard.
“Comrades, you found the reserved energy to walk through the streets of Ebonyi to say enough is enough.
“I thank you for such show of uncommon energy.
“Comrades, the struggle has just began.
“Remember your song which says: ‘freedom comes by struggle.’
“Hunger goes away by struggle; poverty goes away by struggle; high cost of living goes away by struggle.”
Speaking to newsmen, the Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities, Ebonyi State University chapter, Prof. Ikechukwu Igwenyi, lamented that while cost of living increases every minute in geometric proportion, workers salary and its structure remained static.
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He noted that the Federal Government are yet to fulfil all agreements reached with Nigeria workers over fuel subsidy removal and other contentious issues, stressing a lecturer in Nigeria university hardly pays his house rent let alone, building his own house.
Recall that the NLC had declared a two-day nationwide protest, starting February, 27, to express their displeasure over the seemingly insensitivity of the Federal Government towards the sufferings of the masses of the Nigeria.
