Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has urged Nigerian workers to reflect on the governance system in Nigeria.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last election, also advised Nigerian workers to see this year’s May Day as a moment for stocktaking.
He said workers need to meditate on their survival given the myriad of socio-economic tribulations in the last eight years of the Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress administration.
The Wazirin Adamawa, in his solidarity message to Nigerian workers, said the lives and welfare of workers and their families have been reduced to the level of mere existence due to the litany of policy errors by the ruling APC government.
He said the “APC government policies created insecurity in all facets of workers’ lives: food, shelter, health, wealth and education.”
Atiku, in the statement, urged Nigerian workers “not to despair and cowed, but to keep their heads above water and stay afloat, be resilient and hopeful; for the sake of the younger generation and the country’s future.
“In today’s Nigeria, the minimum wage of N30,000 cannot buy a full bag of rice, let alone cloth or pay for a worker’s many utility bills. Hyperinflation in all sectors of our nation has constituted severe socio-economic strangulation to the average Nigerian worker, who’s now poorer than in 2015 when APC came to power.
“It is unimaginable how a government could be so heartless to treat its own bonafide citizens like medieval slaves in colonial plantations. Where are the so-called ‘dividends of democracy’?
“Labourers deserve commensurate wages that meet pervading economic conditions of the time. Alas, Nigerian workers now receive wages that can no longer take them home or bring them back to the office!” he lamented.
The former Vice President reminded the workers to stand with him and legally reclaim their stolen mandate at the February 25 presidential polls.
