A civil society organisation, the Centre for Social and Economic Rights (CSER), has condemned in the strongest terms the shutting down of the national grid by the Organised Labour in the prosecution of its declared nationwide strike action and the plunging of the whole nation into darkness, describing it as an act of economic sabotage and treason that must be met with the full weight of the law.
The group expressed this concern in a press statement issued on Monday in Lagos by its Executive Director, Comrade Nelson Ekujumi, a copy of which was made available to newsmen, saying that it was shocked and devastated by the reported criminal acts and economic sabotage being unleashed on helpless Nigerians and Nigeria by the Organised Labour over its dispute with the government on the issue of minimum wage.
“We are shocked and devastated by the reported criminal acts and economic sabotage being unleashed on helpless Nigerians and Nigeria by organised labour over its dispute with the government on the issue of the minimum wage,” the group said.
CSER, while acknowledging the inalienable rights of workers to embark on strike action as a legitimate tool for advancing its demands, said it found it difficult to understand the reason for the shutting down of the national grid, which is an essential national security asset.
According to the group, the act stands condemned, saying that it amounted to “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.”
“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 stated.
This was just as CSER disclosed that it had received reports of the criminal assault on the constitutional rights of Nigerians in the mould of a terrorist group akin to the Independent People of Biafra/Eastern Security Network (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) examinations, shutting down airports to prevent air flight operations, among several other illegalities.
It noted that organised labour, by its action of plunging Nigerians into pain 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 imperilling the economic interests of the Nigerian people for reasons other than national interest.
The civil society group, therefore, called “on the government to ensure the security of life and property, resist the assault on education and economic interests of Nigerians being undermined by the organised labour strike action of attacking and molesting workers who wanted 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.”
Besides, it equally urged the Federal Government to ensure that any assault on the rights of Nigerians and Nigeria by those who had taken the law into their hands under the pretext of prosecuting a strike action as a result of a wage dispute was met with the full weight of the law.
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