By Victor AhiumaYoung

THE nationwide protest organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on Tuesday, February 27,  to protest biting hunger, mass suffering and poverty across the country, has come and gone, but the echoes of the protest still remain.

Though national leaders of NLC adjudged the protest to be very successful making it to suspend street action on the second day of the “protest, having achieved overwhelming success, thus attained the key objectives of the two-day protest on the first day,” indications have however emerged that for the vigilance and the determination of some committed officials of Lagos State NLC leaders and key civil society allies, some elements within the leadership of the state NLC, the Lagos protest would have been scuttled.

Vanguard gathered that instead of the Ikeja under Bridge venue that Organised Labour in the state have been converging for a protest in the last four or five years, some elements of the leadership wanted the protesters to converge at the Lagos State House of Assembly Complex without the usual street protest. 

According to the sources, when some members of the State Executive Council, NEC, of the NLC and some CSOs allies, got wind of the plot, they stormed the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, NANNM, Secretariat, venue of the meeting where the decision on the protest was being taken, to frustrate the plot.    

According to one of sources, these elements of the leadership “wanted the gathering to be at the State House of Assembly Complex. That was what they proposed to the house on Monday.

Comrades in the house refused and insisted on under the bridge in Ikeja. Though not comfortable with it, they reluctantly agreed based on majority position,

So, they were reminded that our protest usually starts from Labour house in Yaba where JAF earlier in the day started theirs.

Today’s (Tuesday) action was nearly frustrated because of their one man show approach.

They did not arrive Ikeja on time. The musician also came late and members were already getting agitated. Later, we learnt that they claimed to have gone to get some items for refreshment.

Another source said, ‘we had to storm the meeting venue and made them to understand why we must converge under the Ikeja Bridge.

According to him: “We told them that we have printed handbills, and banners. Where are we going to distribute them? This is protest rally not a meeting where you gather at one place. We insisted that we must protest and must start from under the Ikeja Bridge. It is unfortunate that the Lagos NLC that used to be the centre of Labour protest has lost its mass appeal over the years especially in the last five years.”