By Daniel Kanu
The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday said the strike embarked upon by staff of the National Assembly over arrears of unpaid emoluments was a shameful development.
The party said the shutdown of the National Assembly by parliamentary workers “following the commencement of their four-day strike is a sad reminder of what Nigerians witnessed under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration.”
A statement by its national publicity secretary, Mr. Lanre Issa-Onilu, which was made available to TheNiche said, “The PDP’s 16-year rule was characterised by such incidences of unpaid salaries, ghost workers and a shocking disdain for workers’ welfare.”
“While the minority PDP usurpers who parade themselves as the National Assembly leadership have promptly paid themselves their allowances, National Assembly workers under the umbrella of Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) are owed their duly earned 28 per cent increase in their salaries since 2010.
“Perhaps, if the National Assembly leaders have focused on their core legislative business and operations rather than resort to subterfuge with the sole intent of undermining the APC government, the welfare of parliamentary workers would not have been taken for granted.
“Nigerians will recall that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in one of its first actions as a government approved federal government bailouts to states to settle salaries owed workers. That is the stuff of people-centred governance which the APC represents. A worker deserves his wages!
“We have now learnt that the parliamentary workers have blocked all entrances into the National Assembly complex and cut off essential services like power and water supply; effectively crippling any form of activity within the premises.
“The APC calls on the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, to do the needful by attending to the demands of the parliamentary workers. The welfare of workers is a cardinal policy of the APC administration. We, therefore, call on the PDP-led National Assembly to save the country this national embarrassment.”
