Labour threatens ‘war cry’ as FCT Minister withdraws permission to use Eagle Square for Workers’ Day celebration
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has revoked the authorization it had granted to organized labor to utilize Eagle Square in Abuja for their Mayday celebration just three days before International Workers’ Day on May 1.
A pre-Mayday lecture at Pascal Bafyau Labour House in Abuja on Friday revealed the development to journalists in attendance.
Comrade Emmanuel Ugboaja, the Secretary General of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), claimed that the withdrawal was detailed in a letter the FCT Minister’s agency wrote to the labor center on Thursday.
He claims that the Minister stated in the letter that the withdrawal was due to Eagle Square preparations for the inauguration of President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu on May 29.
However, Comrade Ugboaja called the explanation “utterly lame” and said the development hinted at a bleak future for the Nigerian working class’s struggle.
Even though the pullout had little effect on the workers, he advised them to be ready for the worst and brace themselves for a war cry on Mayday.
He said, “They have withdrawn the permission and they don’t want to talk to us, the Minister of FCT has withdrawn our permission to use Eagle Square for the Mayday and clearly he is speaking for his government, it means the government doesn’t want to address the workers, so they don’t appreciate the work the workers have put over the years and we will not fair to appreciate ourselves.
The withdrawal has no implication on workers, the Mayday will hold but not in Eagle Square but the workers will mark their day from the NLC to every nook and cranny of Nigeria”.
“The reason they gave was that they were renovating the Eagle Square for usage on May 29 and we’ll find it to be ultra lame this is not the first time there will be an inauguration we have had more than five to seven inaugurations in the past two decades and we have always held Mayday in the Eagle Square.
The Minister of FCT through his agency sent us a letter yesterday, It’s a workers day, we have sought the permission to use a venue and it was granted to us and later withdrawn, so it has nothing to do with the Minister of Labour If the withdrawal of our permission to use the Eagle Square is a snippet of what they (workers) should expect, we are ready the way we have adjusted to it will prove to them that we are ready for whatever they are going to throw at us”, he added.
On Mayday, he said, “Workers should be prepare for the worst, the vindicators don’t point towards any rosy future if we don’t struggle. So it’s going to be a war cry on May 1st, just for us to brace up to take the challenges we see coming forward”.
