The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has said that the news of the availability of a vaccine for COVID-19 is a special gift of Christmas.
Wabba who said this in a Christmas message, urged the international health community to develop a pro-poor vaccine that will not dig further holes in the pockets of poor countries and poor people of the world, even as medical experts confirm the potency and safety of the vaccine.
According to him, “A more virulent pandemic would be for Organized Capital to commoditize and commercialize COVID-19 vaccine out of the reach of billions who need it desperately. Such would be antithetical to the spirit and message of Christmas.
“Nigerians especially workers have suffered a lot of downturns and reversals this year. While wages remained constant, fuel and electricity prices have been severally and arbitrarily increased inducing a galloping inflation.
“Government must steer away from making workers’ burden an ounce more grievous. This will be resisted”, he remarked.
He further noted that workers cannot be the cannon fodder for the misgovernance of successive years.
“While we encourage workers to adhere to health safety protocols as issued by relevant authorities coordinating the national effort against COVID-19, we call on government to balance the options of another lockdown with its capacity to live up to its responsibility of catering to the welfare of workers and citizens that such lockdown would rob of their means of livelihood.
“The public tumults linked to the last lockdown instruct that compassion, consultation and communication must lead”, he stated.
The NLC President emphasized that love must lead this Christmas, and urged Nigerians to find opportunities to show love to their neighbours, family, friends, strangers and especially the less fortunate in their midst.
