The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume has frowned at the shutdown of the national grid during the just suspended industrial action by organized labor describing the action as a treasonable felony.
He went on to add that there was nowhere in the world that organized labor had shut down a country’s national grid.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s workers’ union had on Monday shut down the national grid as they joined the nationwide strike embarked on by the organized labor.
The organised labour went on strike to compel the government to agree on a new minimum wage for workers.
The shutdown of the national grid resulted in a nationwide blackout.
Read Also: Reconsider Wage Demand To Avoid Layoffs, Rewane Urges Labor
Addressing the National Executive Council of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Abuja, the SGF stated that President Bola Tinubu was making frantic efforts to rebuild the country, saying that, “they (labor) want to destroy it”.
He said, “Nowhere in the world has labor ever tampered with the national grid. It is treason! A treasonable felony is economic sabotage, you don’t do that.
“We are trying to rebuild the economy. The President is picking up, and they want to destroy it. Of what use is that to all of us? That is not the way.”
Akume also said the country’s foreign reserves were zero when the President took over, adding that there had been massive reforms under the incumbent administration.
In another report, Mr. Bismarck Rewane who is the Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company (FDC), has called on the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC), to reconsider its stance on benchmarking the minimum wage demand on dollar exchange rate, stressing that it would result in massive job layoffs, especially among the private sector operators, who are the major employers of labor.
He spoke at the 2024 Annual Vanguard Economic Discourse with the theme: “Reform in an era of Global Economic Uncertainty: Whither Nigeria”, in Lagos.
He argued that the private sector operators are currently confronted with several other macroeconomic challenges that erode their revenue, saying that they can only pay the minimum wage from the revenue.
Rewane also said for efficient price reforms to be achieved, it must be preceded by institutional reforms that would ensure that the right set of people are emplaced in positions of authority.