By Austin Angwe, Makurdi
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed dismay over the raising wave of insecurity which has deepened poverty and inequality in the country, arguing that the development has ravaged more particularly the states and placed a huge burden on the corporate existence of the country.
Presenting a speech on behalf of the National President of NLC, Comrade Joe Ajairo to Benue State governor, Hyacinth Alia, Wednesday, in Makurdi, during a peaceful protest, Benue state NLC chairman, Terungwa Igbe, explained that workers were protesting against raising wave of insecurity in the country, stating that the protest is meant to seek solution to the lingering problems.
The NLC president recalled that for about two decades, Nigeria has been in the throes of insecurity marked by a systemic upswing in armed banditry, kidnap-for-ransom and outright terrorism, with complete annexation of sections of the country by criminal elements.
He noted that Nigerians from all religious, ethnic and occupational backgrounds have been affected in different ways by the rising wave of insecurity in the country, pointing out that the development has negatively affected the economy and social lives of Nigerians.
He lamented that millions of Nigerians have been displaced from their homes and their means of livelihood destroyed, with many agricultural workers in the formal and informal economies losing their livelihoods, limbs or lives amid the persistent conundrum of insecurity.
The NLC boss noted that many farmers in the country could no longer access their farmlands as armed terrorists, bandits and militants have taken over, noting that those who could undertake some farming activities do so under a cruel regime of extortion in the form of heavy protection fees to terrorists and criminals or devastation of their agricultural produce and livestock to bandits and rustlers.
He said during this period, about 2,295 medical and health workers, nurses, local government workers, teachers, petty traders have been killed by Boko Haram and bandits while more than 19,000 teachers have been displaced in Nigeria’s North-East, particularly Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states.
The chairman recalled that between 2009 and 2015, Boko Haram destroyed more than 910 schools and forced at least 1,500 other learning centres to close or turn permanently into internally displaced camps, adding that the development has left a huge cost to children’s education and teachers’ livelihoods.
He said at the height of Boko Haram terrorism, 35 per cent of healthcare facilities were destroyed with about 29 per cent of healthcare facilities in affected States partially damaged with about 50 percent healthcare facilities rendered either inaccessible owing to terrorist attacks in the North Eastern region.
Ajairo lamented that sadly, only 8 per cent of health facilities in Nigeria’s North East geopolitical zone have access to safe water, while 32 per cent have no access to water, revealing that about 788 health facilities have been dilapidated in the northern region.
He said the violence has exacerbated the critical shortage of healthcare professionals, with many doctors, nurses and other health workers leaving to more secured areas, adding that in 2021, at least 30 health workers were kidnapped across the violence frontline states.
According to the NLC boss 2022 witnessed the kidnapping of 37 health workers while seven were killed 2023, with another 19 health workers kidnapped, and six were killed in separate incidents across Nigeria.
He said the Katsina State chapter of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) reported in February 2024 that about 100 healthcare workers have been kidnapped and 20 killed so far in the state’s eight frontline areas, stating that there is a peculiar pattern of insecurity the States are dealing with currently.