Anambra NLC Declares Fasting And Prayer Over Government Neglect
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Anambra has said it will hold a three-day fasting and one-day prayer session in Awka to seek God’s divine intervention over what it termed “the precarious condition of workers in the state”.
The chairman of the Anambra state Chapter of the NLC, Patrick Obianyo, said this in Awka on Friday.
According to Obianyo, the decision to seek the face of God became necessary because the public civil service in the state had suffered so much under successive governments.
Obianyo, who doubles as the chairman of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) in the state, enjoined the workers to participate actively in the prayer programme.
“The permanent secretaries in the state civil service were more of glorified clerks in terms of salary, with the net pay of about N150,000 per month and directors receiving N110,000,” he said.
“If these are the salaries of permanent secretaries and directors, then come to think of what the salaries of other workers down the ladder would be.
“Anambra workers are the least paid throughout the federation and it is not more of lack of fund, but the willingness by the powers that be to accord workers their due rights.”
The chairman said that Anambra remained the only state where organised labour had never gone into any meaningful dialogue with the government.
He said this could be part of the reasons the government is still holding on to seven months check-off dues of some workers for going on strike to protest implementation of the minimum wage.
“The workers will vote only for the aspirant in the forthcoming gubernatorial election that will be ready to pay them the minimum wage,” the labour head said.
“Enough of the sacrifice, enough of the sufferings. Our children have the right to quality education, they must have food on their tables.”
Uche Nwora, the Permanent Secretary, Head of Service, Anambra, said that government had been sensitive to the plight of workers in the state.
He said that although they had not met all the workers’ demands, that was not to say that the government was insensitive.
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