Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC in an Easter message signed by its president, Joe Ajaero, hailed the resilience, the unyielding spirit, and the daily struggle for dignity, justice, and a better life of all Nigerian workers and masses.
The labour centre used the message to stress that this Easter season is not merely a religious ritual; it is a deep moment of ideological clarity, which reminds every citizen that the infinite love of God for humanity was demonstrated not in abstract words, but in the ultimate act of sacrifice; the giving of His only begotten Son; Jesus to break the chains of sin and death.
According to NLC, the sacrifice of Jesus at Calvary was not for personal gain, but for the redemption of the people, but in contrast, the sacrifices demanded of Nigerian workers today are those they never consented to; the sacrifice of their wages on the altar of profiteering, the sacrifice of their safety on the altar of insecurity, and the sacrifice of their lives on the altar of missed opportunities to
govern effectively.
NLC called on Nigerian leaders to learn from the Cross and stop seeing governance as an opportunity for primitive accumulation, but see it instead as a platform for sacrificial service.
Labour said It is important that those who occupy positions of leadership understand that policies must be tools of liberation, not weapons of oppression. Just as Christ at the Cross destroyed the hold of darkness over the people; making a public show of shame of the forces of oppression; it demands that the government uses its power to break the choke hold that poverty, exploitation, insecurity and infrastructure collapse have on the people.
NLC noted with dismay the soaring cost of transportation which it says is a heavy yoke on the necks of workers, devouring wages, stealing productive time, and reducing existence to a daily struggle for survival.
Labour warns that the absence of electricity inducing darkness across the nation is not merely a technical failure; it is a weapon of mass disempowerment, which cripples industries, kills small businesses, and plunges homes into darkness, making it impossible for the working class to live with dignity.
The labour movement used the easter message to demand that the pains of today be transformed into a victory for the people through the implementation of policies that restore public transportation, end the electricity crisis, stop the killings and place the welfare of the masses above the profits of a privileged few, while also demanding a more humane and responsive governance anchored on the people.
It further urged the government to note that the use of state power to suppress workers’ rights, to silence dissent, or to impose austerity that benefits a tiny elite while crushing the majority is a betrayal of the very essence of leadership and negates the spirit of the easter season.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
