Nigerian workers declare strike as naira scarcity worsens

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has directed workers to remain at home from next Wednesday in protest of the biting cash scarcity that has worsened in the country.

The union also directed workers to picket all branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria throughout the country.

The NLC president, Joe Ajaero, gave the directive at a media briefing in Abuja on Wednesday after the expiration of a seven-day ultimatum given by the organization last week.

The union had issued a seven-day ultimatum to the federal government demanding an end to petrol and cash scarcity which has afflicted the country for months.

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“Last week, we gave an ultimatum for the review of the cash crunch bedeviling the country, but we have discovered to our dismay that as at this moment not much effort has been made to ameliorate the situation, government is still foot dragging on these issues we raised,” Mr Ajaero said on Wednesday.

“Based on this, we met again this morning to review our position and resolved that by Wednesday next week all CBN branches will be picketed, workers are directed to stay at home too because people cannot eat, workers can no longer go to the office, we have been pushed to the wall.

“We have decided to take our destiny in our hands, we have mobilized our workers on this exercise.”

Mr Ajaero lamented that workers could not access cash to pay fares to work nor buy food for their families.

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Nigerians have endured a debilitating cash scarcity after the central bank decided to replace higher denominations of the local currency.

Due to what many agree has been a mismanaged process, the policy resulted in a severe cash crunch that is exacerbated by an existing petrol scarcity which has persisted for months.

The policy has badly affected businesses, with many small businesses closed.

Despite a Supreme Court ruling on March 3 for the continued use of old notes, commercial banks still struggle to pay citing scarcity of notes.

On Tuesday, Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor insisted the policy will remain in place and did not give information on specific and immediate steps the bank will take to make cash available.