Godswill Akpabio, the senate president, has lamented that the earnings of members of the National Assembly are poor and not sufficient to take care of volumes of requests from their constituencies.
Akpabio made the remark, while contributing to debate on a motion sponsored by Abdulraman Kawu Suleiman (NNPP, Kano), on the need to avert impending strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
He said, although hardship associated with removal of subsidy on petroleum products is much, Nigerians need to be more patient with the government, even as it devises steps to ameliorate their suffering.
Kawu, in defence of his motion, drew the attention of the Senate to the fact that “the strike would cripple the country. Movement would be severely curtailed. Commercial transport operators would withdraw their services, while markets, schools and healthcare facilities would be forced to shut down.” He warned that the action could heat up the polity and gains from the strike could be far below costs to parties in the conflict.
“The strike threat by NLC, if not averted, could plunge Nigeria into deeper economic woes, dislocate businesses, cause hunger, frustration and more hardship that would lead to unquantifiable financial losses and reduce Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product.
“The NLC strike is also a bad reputation for the Nigerian economy and the educational system because it portrays the country in a bad light to the external world and discourages foreigners from coming to do business or study in the country,” he said. The Senate, after the debate, mandated its leadership to interface between NLC and the Federal Government to avert the industrial action.
