As the Federal Government and the Organized Labour resume dialogue this week over the new national minimum wage, the Archbishop Metropolitan and the Primate of All Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Reverend Dr Henry Ndukuba has called for a common ground to be reached to avert the looming crisis in the country.
Primate Ndukuba noted that the country is faced with a lot of economic challenges, hence there is the need to ensure that the ongoing negotiation between the Federal Government, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to reach a concluding stage for the parties to avoid further industrial actions will worsen the citizen condition.
Addressing journalists during his Episcopal Visit to the Cathedral Church of Advent, Life Camp, Abuja, the Clergyman said Nigeria needs peace and justice, and there cannot be peace without justice.
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He said “With the situation in our country in which families do not even know what to eat and how to provide for their needs, where we are dehumanized, we will begin to think the way we should not think and do the things that we should not do”.
He asked the government to be considerate, and the NLC and TUC to also be reasonable in their demands.
“If we are demanding for a minimum wage that will make the inflation to get out of hand, we will end up in maximum suffering, and I am praying that every side will be considerate, and what the NLC is asking for, we give them support, and we also want to say that the government should consider what to do in order to see that something is done even if it is not up to what they are demanding”, Primate Ndukuba noted.
speaking about the Sunday service, he said “today is Pentecost Sunday, when we commemorate the coming of the holy spirit Upon the church of God. As we see from the scriptures, the Old Testament prophesied it, Jesus promised it and on the day of Pentecost, according to the Acts of the Apostle Chapter 2, God poured out his spirit upon all flesh and the people called by His name, and we can see that the church never remained the same.
“In this service, we are going to induct young boys from the age of 3 to 17 because last year, during our Synod, we resolved that as we nurture the girl child, we should pay attention to the boy child because men are endangered species and we need to take care of them”.