The Nigeria Labour Congress has warned that its ultimatum to the Central Bank of Nigeria to provide sufficient cash within two weeks or risk the picketing of its offices still stands.
The Vice-President of the union, Adewale Adeyanju, disclosed that the congress was monitoring the cash supply to the commercial banks by the CBN, noting that the current cash flow was not 100 per cent as expected.
He, however, admitted that the situation was better than what was obtained in the past few weeks.
The NLC a few weeks ago announced plans to picket CBN state offices nationwide over the scarcity of naira notes which had compounded the hardship in the country.
Following a flurry of meetings with the NLC and the Trade Union Congress by the CBN authorities and upon assurances that the cash crisis would be addressed, the organised labour suspended the planned strike and stay-at-home action scheduled to commence on March 29.
The Presidents of the NLC, Joe Ajaero and the TUC, Festus Osifo, told journalists at the end of their National Executive Council meetings in Abuja that the two unions would monitor the availability of cash in commercial banks for two weeks before deciding on the next line of action.
But providing an update in an interview with one of our correspondents on Monday, Adeyanju disclosed that the NLC would meet to review the ultimatum issued to the CBN in order to decide on the way forward.
He said, “We have given them two weeks. You know we said the two weeks is for the CBN to go and ensure that they dispense naira to all Nigerians, and it is yet to elapse. So when we meet, we are going to review it, the NLC always review its actions.
“If we are satisfied with the CBN cash flow, we will know what action to take. Although I think it is better than before, nobody is complaining now and that is why additional two weeks were given to CBN to review all their past activities so that money can be dispensed to Nigerians.
“So the threat for the strike is suspended for now until when the two weeks given to CBN elapses. If they cannot meet up and Nigerians are still agitating that the naira is not properly dispensed, congress will review its activities and get back to Nigerians.
“The cash flow is not 100 per cent as expected but it has reduced when compared to when someone will stay in the bank for days before you can get N5000. So let us give them another benefit as the NLC has directed. It has reduced tremendously. We have yet to fix a date for the meeting.”
Speaking further, Adeyanju revealed that the unions would review their ultimatum if the cash scarcity failed to improve as expected.
“The NLC has its own way of conducting its activities. We gave them two weeks and suspended the planned strike to make sure the naira is being circulated to all Nigerians.
“When the deadline elapses and we find out that they did not meet up to the required standard, we are going to review our ultimatum. The two weeks ultimatum is still in place,” he stated.
