Workers’ day holds in Abuja amid tight security •Nigeria is not poor —GEJ

NIGERIAN workers, on Thursday, turned out en masse to celebrate the 2014 May Day at the Eagle Square, Abuja. The day was marked amid water-tight security, with all the routes leading to the Federal Secretariat blocked by the security operatives, few metres to the Eagle Square, venue of the event. 


Combined security operatives, including detachment of police, combat-ready military personnel, State Security Service (SSS), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), flooded the secretariat.

 At the two main entrances into the Eagle Square, people were frisked and female with handbags also searched by the security operatives before being allowed into the venue. Despite the heavy presence of security, the atmosphere at the Eagle Square was convivial.

 Workers appeared in different uniforms indicative of various staff unions or branches of the labour unions to which they belonged. While march-pass was going on and speeches delivered at the Eagle Square, it was a rollicking moment for some other workers, who took solace in tents erected by alcohol vendors adjacent to Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ edifice. Continue..................



Sellers of memorabilia bearing Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) badge made brisk business. Some of the memorabilia include caps, T-shirts, short-sleeves shirts and many other items with labour insignia. Itinerant traders with assorted fabrics and clothing materials had a field day too, as many of them had patronage because of a lower prices.

New minimum wage negotiations to begin next year —NLC 

THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and its affiliate organisations, on Thursday, disclosed that negotiations for new minimum wage for workers, will begin next year.

Its Vice President, Issa Aremu, disclosed this during a television programme, adding that the negotiations would be following a stipulation that the country’s minimum wage be reviewed every five years. He, however, did not mention the amount that organised labour would peg the minimum wage.

 The current minimum wage is N18,000. Many state governors complained about paying it. NLC said it was insufficient to meet the workers’ needs. “By next year, we will be back to the negotiating table for a new minimum wage since the law says it should be reviewed every five years,” Aremu said. He said Thursday’s May Day was the 34th to be celebrated in Nigeria and that the NLC would use the opportunity to call for the strengthening of the country’s labour reforms.

 “The primary responsibility of a government is security of lives and property,” he noted, adding that Nigeria, which had been known for peace, was now increasingly being known for serial violence and preventable attacks.