Former aide to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Laolu Akande, has called the ongoing nationwide strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, a “distraction,” saying the country needs to focus on more pressing issues.
On Tuesday, Akande claimed this in an interview with Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He said, “Mr president has said that the bucks stop at his table, so we need to address Mr President and say look Mr president fix this. We don’t need this distraction.
“The nation has more important problems to deal with. The people are suffering, the last thing that people want to have to deal with is a national strike. We don’t need this strike and I believe that it can be sorted out as quickly as possible. I don’t see a very big problem here.”
According to him, the current hardship being faced by Nigerians and the fiscal crisis of the Federal Government are bigger than the NLC strike.
Akande appealed to the President to put an end to myriad national problems compounded by the national strike which commenced Tuesday.
The former presidential aide noted that leaders are elected to deal with crises.
He advised an immediate intervention from the Presidency in the circumstances, saying all it requires is a simple phone call from to invite labour leaders for a meeting and fix the problems.
Asked whether the strike was political or not, Akande responded, “That is why we have leaders. Our leaders are political leaders, elected political leaders to solve political problems.
Akande, however, pleaded with the labour union, saying, “We have to balance it. The labour does have a responsibility, is it entirely right to bring the entire nation to its knees because of a local issue in Imo? Wouldn’t it have been better to localize this thing in Imo? That’s for labour.
“I am not sure that punishing the whole country for whatever it is that is happening in Imo State, I’m not sure that is the right decision on the part of the labour movement. But for government, starting from the President, all the way down;
“… this is something that can be sorted out with a single phone call. A phone call from the Villa to the Labour leaders would get them running into the Villa. You know this is not the first time the government has had to deal with Labour.
“This is the kind of action that we need. We don’t need any further delay, we need the President to get on the ball and sort this thing out and he can sort it out very quickly. Mr President fix this.”
Meanwhile, Akande condemned the inhumane treatment meted out to the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, recently in Imo State.
Akande described the treatment as “criminal.”