Commercial banks around the country closed their gates to customers Tuesday morning and again, were the first to comply, as the indefinite strike action called by Organised Labour kicked off.
The banks’ move is not in particular affinity with the labour unions but more as a pre-emptive security measure, as banks sometimes suffer break-ins, looting of cash and other valuables and vandalisation, in times of such strikes.
In Benin City, the Edo State Capital, Polaris Bank, GT Bank, Access Bank, First Bank, UBA, Zenith Bank and other bank branches on Ekehuan Road were closed.
The situation was the same for banks in other parts of the city, the state and across the country.
Also in Benin City, the Civil Service Secretariat, State High Court, and House of Assembly were under lock and key.
Public schools were also shut down and children who reported for studies had to return to their homes.
At the Civil Service Secretariat in Benin City, the Edo State capital, union leaders locked out civil servants who had come to work.
Similar occurrences were reported aound the country.
The same scenario played out at the State High Court and the Edo State House of Assembly, where workers were shut out.
Some banks which shut their banking halls, allowed customers do do transactoions on Automated Teller Machiines (ATMs).
The strike called by labour is in protest against the well publicized alleged physical assault on NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and others in Owerri, Imo State, on November 1.
It is also in response to pending unresolved demands by Labour on the Federal Government, following the removal of petrol subsidy and the free float of the naira by President Bola Tinubu at his inauguration into office on May 29 (2023).
Both decisions by Tinubu have been widely acclaimed by economist and others as steps in the right direction and capable of repairing the Nigerian economy in the medium to long term.
The same economists say however, that the decisions come with a crunching burden upon the generality of Nigerians in the immediate and would require significant buffers or palliatives to ease the strain.
Organised Labour had on November 7, resolved to declare a nationwide strike by Tuesday, November 14, if their demands were not met.
Some industry watchers say that NLC president, Joe Ajaero, is in this instance, using the power of his office, being the mass mobilization of workers, to exact vengeance upon government, following an alleged assault upon his person in Owerri, on November 1.
Labour sources however contend that there were glaring and well known pains and contentions on the part of Nigerian workers and promises made by the Federal Government, most with clearly stated timelines, all still pending and unresolved.
Matters in contention between Organised Labour and the Federal Government include the purported case of 11,000 ghost employees, unsettled gratuities, non-compliance of N30,000 minimum wage act, and declaration of 10,000 pensioners as ghost retirees.
Ajaero was reported to have been assaulted in Owerri, the Imo State capital, on November 1, when he led a labour march in the state to demand that the state government comply with certain welfare issues concerning workers there.
Ajaero and others blamed the administration of Hope Uzodinma, the governor of Imo State, for purportedly sponsoring the attack.
