3rd June, 2024
A civil society organisation, the Centre for Social and Economic Rights (CSER) has condemned the shutting down of the national grid by the organised labour.
CSER described the development as an act of economic sabotage and treason which must be met with the full weight of the law.
The group in a press statement issued by its Executive Director Nelson Ekujumi in Lagos on Monday, stated that, “We are shocked and devastated by the reported criminal acts and economic sabotage being unleashed on helpless Nigerians and Nigeria by the organized labour over its dispute with government on the issue of minimum wage.
CSER said: “While we recognise the inalienable rights of workers to embark on strike action as a legitimate tool for advancing its demands, we are at a loss to rationalise the reason for the shutting down of the national grid which is an essential national security asset and view this condemnable action as an insurrection meant to unseat a legitimately elected government by undemocratic means which is a violation of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria”.
The group further stated that it had received reports of the criminal assault on the constitutional rights of Nigerians in the mould of terrorist group IPOB/ESN modus operandi by the organised labour in enforcing its strike action by assaulting and beating up workers who turned up for work, forcing the closure of schools to deprive students access to education and the writing of the ongoing West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination, shutting down airports to prevent air flight operations among several other illegalities.
CSER noted that the organised labour by its action of plunging Nigerians into pains and anguish through its economic sabotage and criminal assault of their fundamental human and economic rights over its dispute on wages with its employers, had proven beyond reasonable doubt, that it had derailed from the vision of its founding fathers of creating wealth and prosperity for the Nigerian people, to imperiling the economic interests of the Nigerian people for reasons other that national interest.
The civil society organisation in its statement called on the government to ensure the security of life and property, resist the assault on education and economic interests of Nigerians which is being undermined by the “organised labour strike action of attacking and molesting workers who want to exercise their right to work as guaranteed by the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria and international conventions of which the country is a signatory”.
CSER equally urged the Nigerian government to ensure that any “assault of the rights of Nigerians and Nigeria by those who have taken the law into their hands under the pretext of prosecuting a strike action as a result of wage dispute, is met with the full weight of the law”.