The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged governments at all levels to move beyond offering rhetoric and condolence messages to taking concrete and measurable steps to tackle the worsening insecurity across the country.
A statement issued on Wednesday by the NLC president, Joe Ajaero, expressed the labour group’s solidarity with the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) over the recurring cases of abduction of its members and students in the country.
“We recognise the tricky operational situation in Oyo. We nonetheless use this opportunity to once again call on the government at all levels to rise beyond the ritual of “we are on top of the situation” and condolence messages to concrete and measurable action,” Mr Ajaero said.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress wishes to express solidarity with the striking members of NUT (Nigeria Union of Teachers) over the serial cases of abduction of its members and students/pupils,” the statement said.
The NLC said the well-coordinated demonstration by the NUT, led by its president, Comrade Titus Audu Amba, represented the resolve of teachers “to take their destiny in their hands instead of waiting to be slaughtered to the last person.”
“The action equally represents a gentle but unignorable nudge on the governments to take more seriously the growing insecurity industry.”
Mr Ajaero lamented about how teachers, pupils, students, local government workers, doctors, nurses and health personnel are frequently victims of banditry and other criminal activities in the country.
“We are heart-broken by the ugly pictures of our children, held and tortured by depraved bandits in the forests of Oyo state. As a nation, we cannot continue to fold our hands while this horror movie continues to play, from Zamfara to Oyo, from Maiduguri to Port Harcourt,” he said.
He noted that the NLC would not hesitate to initiate a solidarity action with the teachers or any other group of workers if the government does not treat the security of lives as paramount.
He warned that the country is losing the war against insecurity, as other major or mass abductions have taken place in Plateau, Kogi and other areas in the aftermath of the Oriire abduction in Oyo State.
