The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has issued a warning, stating that the upcoming protest on February 27 and 28, organized by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), may lead to anarchy.
The Deputy President of TUC, Dr Tommy Etim, made this warning in an interview with The PUNCH.
Etim stated that it was ill-timed and urged the NLC not to plunge the country into anarchy.
He further said that organized labour could get its demands without protests, adding that all it needed to do was engage in strategic engagement
He said, “If we carry out a protest in this time of hunger, we may meet anarchy. A hungry man is an angry man, and any protest at this time can snowball into a revolution, which we cannot contain.
“Take what happened in Imo State, where Ajaero himself went there after several warnings. If not for the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, the NLC leader would have been killed.
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“When there is tension in the land, we must be very sceptical and strategic in our agitation. We are not babies; we have been long in this struggle. I, for one, have been in this struggle for 35 years. Sentiments and pride don’t pay.”
On addressing the rumours that the TUC might have been compromised by the Federal Government, he said, “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the thing is for sure, hunger knows no religion, political party, or ethnic sentiment.
“Whether you are a big man or not, your family members are also feeding on you, and if they are parasitic, you will know that one rich man in a community is poor.
“Whatever we are doing, we must recognise that it is time to rescue Nigeria, and we cannot just sit down and say a protest will solve the matter.
“Yes, we can mobilise. Yes, protesting is our right. But I think we should be strategic and know that we must carry everyone along rather than thinking we can do it alone. A fight of this nature is not a one-man fight.
“We at the TUC don’t issue threats and back down. The NLC is synonymous with issuing protest threats and backing out, and we don’t want to be a part of that. Any day we issue a notice of action, we carry it to the letter. If you follow our trajectory, you’d know that we always walk our talk.”
