Ahead of the five-day warning strike directed by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) scheduled to commence today in Kaduna, Governor Nasir El-Rufai says he is ready and will wait for the union leaders and the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party.
It has been reported that the Transmission Company of Nigeria had since midnight of Saturday knocked off all the 33KV lines in the state, leaving residents in darkness.
This followed an earlier warning by the National Union of Electricity Employees that it had been directed by the NLC to join the warning strike.
It was gathered that many civil servants had decided to boycott the strike today following a warning by the state government that attendance would be taken.
El-Rufai had on Saturday said his government would not bow to blackmail, insisting that it was not sustainable to spend 84 to 96 percent of its federal allocation on salaries and personnel costs.
The state government had noted that it had been subjected to campaign of lies, misrepresentation and false claims that its rightsizing exercise affected 4,000 workers and that it had stopped paying the minimum wage.
The Truth reports that at least 14 affiliates of the NLC from the aviation, petroleum, banking, health and transport sectors have expressed their readiness to comply with the strike.
NLC President, Ayuba Wabba and other leaders of the union arrived Kaduna yesterday for close-door meeting.
However, reacting to the PDP Vanguard which made a statement on Twitter that a ‘mother of all labour strikes’ would take place in Kaduna, El-Rufai described the NLC and the PDP as “fathers of all hypocrites”, stressing that Kaduna would wait for them.
He tweeted: “FATHERS OF ALL HYPOCRITES: Kaduna will wait for you all – the invisible PDP & affiliates like the hypocritical NLC that is yet to implement the National Minimum Wage Act, 2019 for its own employees.”
