Mohammed Shosanya
The Nigeria Labour Congress,NLC,has said significant efforts made by the Central Bank of Nigeria to stop the current scarcity in the country made the union to stay action on its industrial action billed to commence on Wednesday.
Besides,the union said the apex bank’s complied with the demands of its National Executive Council.
The NLC had Tuesday announced the suspension of the strike and gave the Central Bank of Nigeria two weeks grace to ensure improved availability of cash to commercial banks with s view to nipping in the bud the current cash crunch in the land.
Comrade Joe Ajaero,President of NLC,who conveyed the reason for the action in a press statement on Wednesday,also said the labour union decided to shelve the strike because
banks have embarked on the weekend banking as agreed though some Bank branches remained shut to the Public
According to him,the union’s NEC also observed availability of cash has noticeably improved in the major urban centres in Nigeria.
The statement said,however, in rural communities and towns Cash scarcity seemingly persists to some degrees.It added that banks have continued to ration access to cash thus limiting financial transactions
The statement said t does appear that normalcy has not completely been restored as long queues are still visible to allow cash flow seamlessly as before the unfortunate policy
It also said:” As a function of the reports received, and in collaboration with the TUC who also had their NEC to discuss the same issues; we resolved to suspend the proposed nation wide strike planned for today, Wednesday the 29th of March, 2023.since there is significant improvement in the availability of cash across the nation”
It said the CBN should ensure that total normalcy is restored to cash availability within the nation in the next two weeks,adding that NLC will embark on nation – wide strike without warning if the Cash situation degenerates instead of returning to normalcy.
It added:” Finally, we set up a Joint Committee at the National and State Levels to monitor and ensure sustainable compliance by the CBN towards ending the Cash crunch and removing the siege on Nigerians.
“These were some of the bases upon which our decisions rested and follow-up action to ensure that CBN remains compliant and not renege on the agreed path towards the restoration of normalcy in the cash situation.
“We want to assure Nigerians that though there are other critical issues confronting us as a people, we are continuously committed to making sure that we roll back all anti-workers and peoples policies of the government.
“Once again we call for the continued support of all Nigerians to ensure that we rescue ourselves from actions that are designed to emasculate us both as workers and as a people. It is only by working together that we can guarantee our collective safety and interests as a people”.
