Federal Workers Give Federal Government A 14 Days Utimtum On Wage Increase

The Federal Workers Forum, FWF has appealed to the Federal Government for immediate intervention in the face of rising cost of living.

 

This is contained in a letter to the Federal Government titlted, “WORKERS ARE SUFFERING IN SILENCE ,WE NEED HELP : PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI PAY COST OF LIVING ALLOWANCE NOW ELSE MASS PROTEST IN FOURTEEN DAYS. ” and signed by Comrade Andrew Emelieze

 

The letter said, “”Sir, we are compelled to write you and seek your immediate interventions to the deplorable living conditions of the federal workers and the nation’s workforce at large. We bring you greetings and our best wishes.It is our wish that this letter finds you in the best of mind. Hope is a great thing, we have been living on hope that things will get better but present day Nigeria has been a surprise, dashing our hopes. We will however not stop hoping and a strong believe that things will get better. It is part of this hope that has made us to write you, hoping that you will rise up to the occasion.

 

“Your Excellency, we need not emphasize  further, it is evident to us all that the economy is daily making live difficult for federal workers.  Inflation and daily devaluation of our naira has added to reducing the purchasing power of the Nigerian workers. Cost of living crisis has confronted the Nigerian workers and hardship has become the order of the day. Considering the fact that Nigeria is a low wage country, the ₦30,000 minimum wage will no doubt make Nigeria workers count among the  133 million multi dimensionally poor people as proposed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).”

 

“Most workers had gone borrowing  on killer loans inorder to survive , households have been badly affected and workers are gradually getting more and more frustrated. As a matter of facts,  federal workers are suffering in silence and we know that other workers in Nigeria share similar fate. This condition gets worse with the pensioners who also share  similar conditions of a fixed income in the face of the present crippling economy confronting Nigeria. The suffering is getting to the level that federal workers cant cope again. We just wonder what the lots of the unemployed will be if workers are going through this unprecedented hardship.”

 

“Mr President Sir , what is our hope ? We had expected that by now our employers would have rolled out a stimulus plan for a cost of living allowance  #COLA to mitigate against the #CostOfLivingCrisis in Nigeria as done in other countries. Sir, better late than never. It is time the Nigerian government immediately address the cost of living crisis facing our people as a matter of justice and fairness;Nigerian workers must not be treated like slaves.”

 

“On our part  as federal workers, we have tried to have understanding with the system and as said before , we have been suffering in silence. Our families are badly affected and there is no way we can continue in this condition without the help of  our government. Really Sir, it should be an embarrassment that we the federal workers are crying out ; We do not in anyway want to embarrass government but most sincerely we must also state that federal workers have been financially embarrassed. As the engine room of governance, we definitely need proper fuelling to keep the wheel moving.We need urgent help to escape this hardship.”

 

“We therefore call on government to come to our rescue and bring forth a cost of living allowance package for all federal workers and by extension the Nigerian society within the next fourteen  days else federal workers nationwide will be compelled to begin a permanent nationwide protest immediately this ultimatum elapses. “

 

“We believe that our country has what it  takes to help her workers out of hardship.”

 

“We are proposing the payment of 30% of the workers salary as stimulus payment to all federal workers and that our government should generate stimulus package for households.”

 

“Our attention is also drawn to the stoppage of salaries of some federal workers in Nigeria as a result of over borrowing, We call on the federal government to as a matter of urgency jettison that idea . Mr President please also look into the delay in the payment of pensions and gratuities to retired federal staff as our retirees sometimes wait up to three years before getting their entitlements.” 

 

“We are also calling on government to revisit the idea of half salaries to the university workers, this is not the best of time to contemplate such a gesture .By implication, we are in solidarity with the moves by our universities Unions (ASUU, SSANU, NAAT, NASU etc ) towards the wellbeing of the university workers. We therefore call on all hands to be on the  deck and prepare for mass actions in the next fourteen day if government refuse to do the needful. All workers, Labour activist and trade Unions are called upon to start mobilizing for protest and mass struggle. We cannot afford to fail ourselves, this is a fight for our survival.If on 27th December, our request are not met, then let the protest begin. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) , with this letter is called upon to impress upon Mr President that Nigerian workers are really going through tough times.”