Kwara state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has asked the federal government to bring down high price of goods, commodity and services in the country by strengthening the price control boards and opening of borders to make life bearable for the masses.
Addressing journalists and members of the union at the NLC state headquarters, Labour House, in Ilorin on Wednesday, the state chairman, Muritala Olayinka, flanked by other executives, said that government policies had made life difficult for ordinary Nigerians, especially, income earners.
“As directed by the national leadership of our union, we are addressing press today as part of the activities for the two-day protest against hardship in the country. We call on the governments to quickly swing into action, come out with intervention to bring down cost of living, reduce prices of goods and services, which had formed our demands day by day, to make life bearable for everyone.
“As we all know, there are federal agencies for the price control mechanism. So, the government should strengthen the agencies by giving them more power to carry out their responsibility. By so doing, the high price of goods happening per second would be addressed. They should carry out the job diligently and sincerely. When that is done life will be more bearable for you and I.
“On the issue of opening of border, I believe border was closed majorly because of insecurity in the country. Despite the closure, we still experienced insecurity. Thus, we see no reason why border should not be opened. When our farmers face competition, they’ll double their efforts and price of farm goods would reduce drastically. Our farm produce are being supplied to other countries, especially rice, at cheap price and high cost at home due to scarcity”.
The Kwara state chairman of the NLC said that he was optimistic that the two-day protest was capable of bringing desired effect, adding that the leaders needed to be put on their toes to make people-oriented decisions.
“Wage awards were being discussed. Committee set up on refinery is doing its work to make it realisable. A lot of changes would come after the protest. Minimum wage committee is being set up. When governments don’t see criticism from people they tend to relax,” he said.
