On the 31st January deadline for the withdrawal of old naira notes with the new redesigned ones, Wabba demanded an urgent action to review the policy being implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria, including the extension of it’s timelines.
Asked to comment on the Naira Redesign policy, he described it as crisis-riden, adding that the policy has created additional hardship for the poor Nigerians, especially those living in the rural areas.
He said that NLC is aligning itself to the position expressed by the Senate on the need to rejig the policy.
According to Wabba, NLC has written President Muhammadu Buhari and the CBN Governor demanding urgent measures to address the challenges posed by the implementation of the policy.
He said, ” I mean, they are not enough new Naira notes in circulation and the old notes are being rejected, they are pushing people to the wall and very soon people will react.
“More importantly, even in city centres, where we have banks, the banks are not dispensing. If you go to do rural areas and see the chaotic nature of how people have come with their money even to change it is becoming a problem.
“No policy will be meant actually to haunt people like what is happening now. And we have called on the government to look at this issue very carefully before it leads to a major crisis,” he said.
The NLC president whose tenure will end in February this year, was taken up on some of government policies that generated labour dispute under his watch and which were yet to be resolved.
One of such issues was the unresolved negotiation on the right pricing of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) of which final agreement was not reached before the current price increases.
When asked to comment on the situation, Wabba blamed the federal government for not coming clean on its position on measures that would effectively put an end to the energy crisis.
He said there is currently confusion in the domestic petrol distribution system, to the extent that the regulatory bodies charged with the function of check the excesses of marketers are not doing anything about it.
The outgoing NLC President also blamed the federal government for not acceding to labour movement’s proposal to review the gas pricing template that is fueling the persistent hike in electricity tariff.
He explained that due to the gas price that is being calculated based on Dollar, the electricity generating companies are finding justification to always hike their tariff.
Wabba, who used the opportunity to review achievements and challenges of his tenure at the helm of affairs of the labour centre, said he has been able to refocus the NLC and revived its structures into a formidable trade Union entity.
He, however expressed regret that some of the efforts made by the NLC to negotiate and find lasting solution to major issues that affects workers welfare did not yield the desired fruit due to the government’s lack of commitment and flexibility to accept workable ideas.
