Workers in Kaduna have taken over major roads in the state and government offices to protest the harsh economic policies of the governor, Nasir El-Rufai, whom they nicknamed Hell Rufai.
The highly religiously polarised Kaduna people found a common ground against El-Rufai over the sack of close to 4, 000 workers who were mostly from the 23 local government areas of the state.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), after its Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting on April 22, announced that they would embark on five days protest, beginning today, May 17, 2021, for the government to reverse the decision. But the Kaduna governor said the decision won’t be reversed. He said it was an economic decision to reduce the burden pose by workers’ wage bill which gulps more than 80 per cent of the state’s revenue.
But for the NLC, the sack was callous, at a time when even wage earners are finding it difficult to survive the rising inflation, not to talk of jobless persons.
They marched the streets with placards, one of which described the governor as Hell Rufai.
The protesters also barricaded the gates into government offices and chased out a few of the workers who reported to work to avoid being victimised by the state government.
For many Nigerians, El-Rufai is insensitive as he refused to see the connection between rising poverty caused by unemployment and crime. Kaduna state is the epicentre of kidnapping in Nigeria.