Chris NgigeBattered by poverty and angered by frequent unpaid salaries, Nigerian workers revolted on Monday, calling the Minister of Labour and Productivity a thief, as he began to address them on Workers’ Day.
Mr. Chris Ngige had barely begun to speak in the capital Abuja at a gathering to celebrate Nigerian workers on May Day when the workers interrupted him and began chanting “ole, ole ole, ole ole” or “thief, thief, thief, thief”.
Anger has been rising in Nigeria as millions of people continued to lose their jobs under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari who promised to heal Nigeria from its many woes.
But instead of the saviour and the champion they had expected, things continued to collapse with the economy terribly battered by low oil prices, lack of a sound economic team, absence of electricity and many other things.
In the end, the naira crashed so much that it sank to its lowest level since independence from Great Britain in 1960.
With little money and the implementation of the Treasury Single Account, TSA, which moved all public funds to the Central Bank of Nigeria, drying up commercial banks, employers began to sack or cut wages.
Several states still owe workers many months of unpaid salaries. The situation seemed to have so degenerated that the government began to relax or overturn its own wrong policies.
But by that time, protests were already breaking out, and two years had gone even as election was already looming with President Buhari battling with his health.