• Labour rules out engagements with FG on eve of nationwide actions
• Group seeks Ajaero’s resignation over corruption allegation
• Hardship may push more people to mental health issues – Psychiatrist
After taking the wind off the sail of a well-mobilised protest with an abrupt suspension, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, yesterday said that they could not proceed with the two-day nationwide protest due to intimidation and threats.
NLC and other related unions commenced a national protest on Tuesday over the high cost of living, inflation, insecurity and hardship in the country faced by Nigerians since the removal of subsidy on petrol in May 2023.
The protesters headed to the National Assembly, where Ajaero presented a letter of demands to President Bola Tinubu, through the leadership of the National Assembly.
However, in a communiqué issued at the end of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting and signed by its President, Ajaero and General Secretary, Ismail Bello, on Tuesday, the NLC suspended the nationwide planned protest slated for Wednesday.
Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, Ajaero said following its announcement of the commencement of the protests, the congress was intimidated and harassed in a bid to prevent the street marches.
“We were threatened with all manners of consequences that would be meted on us if we went ahead,” he said.
“We were, however, not perturbed as lifting the heavy yoke of suffering upon Nigerian workers and masses left us with no option than to press on.”
The NLC president said the Congress has evidence from Tuesday’s protest of the “importation of agents who were mobilised to the protest routes and grounds to cause violence against the peaceful protest. That was one of the reasons we had to restructure on the second day of the nationwide protest,” he added.
“You may have noticed that almost all the routes to our office have been militarised this morning. It took a lot of time to access our office. These are not things you expect from a democratic society.”
The NLC president said while the Congress would continue to attend meetings with the Federal Government, it will no longer do so on the eve of any of its actions.
“Each time they invite us for a meeting, we will attend and listen to them. You are aware we held a meeting with the Federal Government on Monday,” Ajaero said.
“But while that meeting was going on, they wrote a letter to all the unions to come and undermine us. There is nothing they have not done to subvert the NLC. But if we are invited for another meeting, we will still go and listen.
“However, henceforth, NLC will no longer be comfortable attending meetings on the eve of any action. Nothing comes from such meetings than to delay us and demobilise us so we don’t carry out our action.
“This is our new resolve. They cannot call us for a meeting when we have an action in two days and then keep us till late at night so we will not come out.”
Ajaero, however, vowed that despite the government’s desperate efforts to undermine the Congress through divide-and-rule tactics, its members won’t be cowed by any threat.
Ajaero, who was flanked by a renowned activist, Femi Aborisade and other labour leaders, said the government is fond of breaching agreements and laws of the land, and that one of the examples was non-functioning of the Port Harcourt refinery, which was announced would begin operation last year December.
HOWEVER, a non-governmental group, Democracy Watch Initiative (DWI), on Wednesday, called on the NLC leadership to prevail on Ajaero to step down as president of the union over alleged corruption.
The group said the labor union under Ajaero’s leadership has lost the confidence of workers, calling on NLC to immediately put a mechanism in place to investigate allegations against him.
DWI, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Muhammed Sanusi, hinged its calls on alleged corruption allegations against Ajaero as well as reported incompetence and partisanship.
Sanusi alleged that Ajaero had previously shown signs of partisanship towards certain regional political interests and a particular presidential candidate.
The group said they cannot sit idly while the organisation supposedly established to protect the rights of workers is failing in its mandate due to corrupt and biased leadership.
MEANWHILE, a consultant psychiatrist, Dr Taiwo Obindo, on Wednesday, said some Nigerians might be prone to developing mental health conditions, due to the visible hardships in the country.
Obindo, also the President of Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (APN), said the current economic hardship, coupled with the level of poverty and other social factors in the country might likely inflict mental illness on more Nigerians.
He listed the social factors to include high cost of living, kidnapping, financial problems, inflation, child abuse, rape, broken homes and broken marriages, traumatic experiences and degrees of violence among others.
Obindo explained that people who were predisposed to the social factors were more likely to develop mental health issues particularly this period the country was faced with lots of economic challenges.
According to him, Nigerian society is a culture medium for organisms that put people at risk of mental illness.
Obindo, who identified poverty as a leading cause of mental health illness, said that many Nigerians were battling with poverty, saying that might predispose them to mental health conditions.
“The devastating effects of inflation, poverty, insurgent attacks, insecurity and other social crisis across the country, had left several people in need of psychiatric evaluation.
“In some cases, the individuals may not even know they are being exposed to mental health conditions; but the truth remains that the social crises are taking a toll on the mental health well-being of the citizens.
“No doubt, the situation has resulted in an increase in the number of mental health cases. If you look at the degrees of social crisis and hardships and compare it with what goes on in other climes, you will discover that we have a greater predisposition to developing mental illness,” he said.
He lamented that victims of rape or kidnapping suffer high degrees of trauma, which also affect their mental health.
Quoting a statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Obindo said that no fewer than 64 million Nigerians had one form of depression or the other, saying that depression and stress were major predisposing factor to mental illness.
He also said that statistics from WHO had indicated that one in every four Nigerians might develop mental health issues in their lifetime.
THEGUARDIAN
