Frustrated by the protracted Naira Scarcity and its accompanying financial challenges, the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, has threatened to shut down the economy if the federal government does not address the situation within seven days.
The seven-day ultimatum was issued after an emergency Central Working Committee, CWC, meeting in Abuja on Monday.
The NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, while briefing journalists, decried the suffering that Nigerians have been witnessing because of CBN’s cashless policy and threatened to ask workers to withdraw their services across the country if the problem is not resolved in the next seven days.
The NLC President said: “First, it’s apparently difficult for us to assess the little money we have in banks and Nigerians are groaning. This is the same money they were asked to pay into the banks.
“We are also aware that it’s difficult to get petroleum products and where you see it, a litre costs N350 in some parts of the country.
“We will no longer be quiet about this issue of perennial fuel scarcity and arbitrary increase in prices.
“On the issue of cash crunch, the NLC is giving the FG, the agencies under it including the CBN and other banking institutions seven working days to address it. If they fail to do it at the expiration of the seven working days, the Congress is directing all workers in the country to stay at home because it has become very difficult to access even N1, especially for traders who do not have bank accounts.
“We’ve also discovered that even when banks give out old currencies, it can’t be spent. Even when you take them back to the same banks, they’re not accepting them. We’ve been frustrated to a level that we can no longer keep quiet.”
