Chief Dan Orbih, National Vice Chairman, South South, Peoples Democratic Party, has expressed sympathy with Nigerian workers as they mark their day without much to celebrate.
Orbih said on Saturday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Benin, Edo State that workers day should go beyond the rhetoric of promises that were in most cases unfulfilled.
“What the workers are doing today is marking the workers day, because there is nothing to celebrate,” he said in his Workers’ Day message.
He said the time was right for the Nation to start taking the interest of Nigerian workers, who labour under very difficult conditions, more seriously.
He explained that this was because the workers spent their most productive years in the service of the nation and they got very little at the end of the day.
The PDP South South leader noted that what the workers in the country were going through was unprecedented.
According to him, workers’ salary can no longer meet the cost of living of the workers.
Orbih said: “There is no Nigerian worker today that can depend solely on his salary without looking for other things to augment the income.
“There’s been no significant review of workers salary in the cause of rising cost of living.
“To me this is a moment of sober reflection, it is a moment for workers to sit down and start looking back whether today is better off than before.”
Orbih said Nigerian workers had reached the stage where they must show greater interest in the election of those who manage the resources of the country.
He said this was because the workers suffered most from the bad policies and insensitivity of those in government toward the needs and challenges the workers face.
He advised workers to always be courageous to vote out any government elected and not taking care of their interest.
He urged them to always join hands with the larger society to vote in a government that would take the interest of the workers and Nigerians to heart.
He also urged them to pray fervently for the survival of the country.
NAN.