The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) and the International Confederation of Trade Union Congress (ITUC) have called on the three tiers of government in Nigeria – federal, state and local – to end violence and the growing state of insecurity in? the country.
According to them, the federal government has failed to combat the country’s socio-economic deficiency which has led to unemployment, collapse in the education system, as well as other infrastructure which compounded the high rate of insecurity in the country.
The labour centres made the declarations while reacting to the high state of insecurity in the country with armed groups attacking residents of several parts of the north, culminating in the bloodiest of such recent attacks in Kano where about 250 people were reported to have died as a result of multiple bomb attacks in several locations in the commercial city, followed by another attack in Bauchi.
President of the NLC, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar said: “The nation’s leaders need to refocus their attention the high rate of insecurity in the country. We are worried that government has, by acts of omission and commission, become part of the country’s insecurity challenges through poverty-inducing programmes and measures policies that can only push the populace to the wall and provoke a reaction by a long suffering populace.”
Arguing that the federal government has been unable, and does not even seem interested in providing shelter, food, healthcare, water or education for the people, Omar however said: “There is urgent need for the government to reappraise the security agencies so as to take decisive steps in curbing the high rate of insecurity in the country.”