By VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

THE April 10, 2013 national protest by Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, over the plight the plight of pensioners in the country is already gathering momentum.

Already reports across the country indicated that state councils of NLC had begun moblisation of members for the protest.

Similarly, affiliate industrial unions have equally mobilizing members for the protest which they said was long overdue.

An official of Delta State Council of NLC, who spoke to Pension and You on the preparation for the protest, said workers, pensioners and civil society allies were already looking forward to the day of the protest.

It would be recalled that leaders of NLC fixed Wednesday, April 10, 2013, for a nationwide protest that will take workers to Aso Rock and governors’ offices over the plight of pensioners in the country.

Pensioners during a verification exercise.

At its Central Working Committee, CWC, meeting in Labour House, Abjua, NLC leaders lamented that all efforts to get the attention of Federal Government including two letters to the Presidency for intervention over hardships and suffering of the nation’s senior citizens were of no avail.

In a communiqué issued yesterday by NLC President and Acting General Secretary, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar and Chris Uyot respectively,  NLC leaders decried the on the growing level of corruption and crisis in the pension industry.

According to the communiqué “The CWC after an exhaustive deliberation noted that the Congress had written at least two letters to the Presidency calling for its intervention in the pension crisis; Coupled with the correspondences, the leadership of Congress had reached out through other channels to the Federal Government; the Congress leadership had also made public pronouncements on the avoidable, but painful pension crisis.”

“The CWC noted   dismay that the Presidency neither acknowledged the letters nor responded to the issues the leadership of the Congress publicly raised on the plight of pensioners. that the Congress had exploited all the lawful channels of communication to the government to no avail,  despite the unprecedented scam in the Pension regime and the raging war of words between the Executive and the National Assembly, pensioners remain the main victims with a teeming number of pensioners not being paid, congress is that nobody wants to listen to the plight of Pensioners.”

“Worried that the continued silence of the government means more hardship for its members in the fold of the National Union of Pensioners, NUP, and dtoensure justice for its members who are owed billions of pension arrears, the CWC resolved that on Wednesday April 10, 2013, all NLC affiliate unions and State councils across the length and breadth of the country will mobilise workers on a protest march to the Presidency and State Government houses. In pursuance of this objective, the CWC directed NLC affiliate unions, State Councils, friends and allies of organized labour to immediately commence mobilization for the action.”