Hardship Protest: Don’t Wait For NLC

The Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) at the 2023 general election, Omoyele Sowore has charged Civil Society Organizations and Nigerians not to wait for the ultimatum given by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) before hitting the street to demonstrate against the increased hardship in the country.

Sowore who made this call while featuring on an Arise TV broadcast on Sunday, lamented that the president no longer respected NLC, urging CSOs to independently protest against the plight of Nigerians.

Naija News reports that his call came after president Tinubu accused the NLC of eyeing his position.

Tinubu while speaking at the inauguration of the red line project in Lagos said that it was wrong for the labour union to call for a strike just nine months into his administration.

Tinubu further suggested that the labour union does not represent the entirety of the Nigerian population advising the union to wait until 2027 if they had interest in contesting for the country’s presidency seat.

However, reacting to the president’s comment, Sowore said, “Tinubu is also saying something that I think should be important for everybody and that is to develop new voices because he no longer respects the NLC.

“The civil society movement in the country should also stop waiting opportunistically for a labour strike before we strike on our own.

“Let’s flood the streets tomorrow, he will know that there are real voices.

“They practically hijacked ‘occupy Nigeria’ in 2012. That was where the APC started their political movement. Goodluck Jonathan had not enjoyed power for up to nine months when the occupation of Nigeria happened.

“Why would you say that the NLC should go and wait till 2027? NLC has already told you that they have hardship issues. The only thing that has not changed since Tinubu came into power is minimum wage.”