The Nigerian Content Development and Management Board (NCDMB) and the Federal Secretariat in Bayelsa State have been shut down in compliance with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) nationwide indefinite strike directive.
A visit to the NCDMB headquarters showed that the entrance gate to the office premises was barricaded with vehicles, and staff members were not allowed into the entrance to the office premises while the federal Secretariat was under lock and key.
At the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Yenagoa, it was observed that the hospital was offering skeletal services and was not completely shut down as doctors and nurses were seen attending to patients with critical health issues.
Observation revealed that the majority of government secondary and primary schools as well as commercial banks in the state were also completely shut down in compliance with the strike action.
Customers were seen hanging at the entrance of Zenith Bank in Amarata and FCMB located at Obele without access to the main bank.
A FCMB staff member who spoke with Leadership under anonymity said customers who arrived at the bank earlier were informed by security that the bank was closed and not operating as a result of the strike.
“But depending on what the customer wants to do,. If the customer is insisting, maybe if it is a transfer or deposit, we can collect from them, but they are coming inside.”
While addressing journalists at the entrance of the state secretariat in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State Council chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Barnabas Simon, said that they are protesting based on the directive by the organised labour over the refusal of the federal government to do the needful with regards to seeing how the hike of the fuel pump price be reversed, as well as their deliberate steps not wanting to agree to grant labour and workers in Nigeria a living wage.
“We are tied to the minimum wage; we cannot go to the minimum anymore, and we want to go on living, and the federal government is foot-dragging.
“As a result of yesterday’s meeting that ended in a deadlock, we have been directed to carry out this assignment to step down all activities.
“So, we are on strike; we are saying a capital no unless the federal government comes to terms with labour and does the needful in releasing the living wage without further delay.
“It is a total action; we shall not have any compromise whatsoever. We are using this medium to tell all our members, and workers in Bayelsa State, to stay at home.
“We are also using this medium to call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to see how he would expedite action in ensuring that these issues are ammoniated so as to cushion the effect of subsidy removal”, he said
Also, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) chairman in Bayelsa state, Comrade Laye Julius, said that in line with the directive of the national, the leadership and the monitoring committees have been set up to ensure that workers comply with the strike directive.
He said, “All the banks in the state, federal institutions, and state institutions—all of them have been shut down and this will continue until we get a counter-directive from our national.
“What we are showing them is that we have a right to Nigeria, we have a right to economy, and we have a right to a better standard of living just like them.
‘We are telling them to come back to the negotiation table, and until you do that, we will not accept. It is quite unfortunate that in democracy in Nigeria, democracy does not belong to the people but to the politicians. What we are doing is taking back our democracy.”
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