Some pro-labour groups have called on media practitioners to have better perspectives about the struggles of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, and its leadership under Comrade Joe Ajaero, in the current negotiations for the welfare of workers across Nigeria. They noted that the current poverty of the Nigerian worker does not know religion or region.
Founder of Progress For The People Group, Ogbeni Ajibade Ogundeyi, after a meeting with eight other groups who align with NLC in its search for amelioration of the sufferings and hardship of Nigerians, said those who want to comment on the issues should shun the ethnic and religious hues they are assuming. Instead, he asked them to seek solutions as NLC was doing.
Ogbeni Ogundeyi said the groups took exception to personal attacks on Comrade Ajaero who a particular columnist mocked over the brutality he suffered at the hands of agents of Imo State Government. “The columnist who we would not dignify by naming him, should know that those who support brutality and torture in a society don’t know when it would be their turn,” he said.
In a press release he signed, Ogbeni Ogundeyi said it beats the imagination of the groups and other Nigerians that most activist writers have suddenly become the mouth piece of government, using their columns to ridicule the NLC and its leadership.
“It is worse when an educated person in a quest to malign NLC would fail in a simple matter of differentiating between Labour as a political party and the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, as a trade union. This ignorance is deliberate with an aim of discrediting the struggle of workers for their well-being.
“The current poverty of workers and the unemployed affects all parts of the country. Anyone interested in the development of Nigeria should not support policies that promote poverty,” he said.
He added that out of their selfish interest, some writers have invested their skills in creating divisions in the labour movement. “It is a sad development because as educators and activists, more is expected of these writers in promoting the welfare of Nigerians,” he said, “which is central to NLC’s struggles”.
Picture: NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero
