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Femi Falana with Nigerian workers during the NLC protest in Lagos state( Photo Credit: Punch Newspapers)

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Femi Falana, says the implementation of the report of the Stephen Oronsaye Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions, and Agencies by President Bola Tinubu will push about 100,000 civil servants out of their jobs.

Lagos Reporters reported that the presidency published a list of 30 Federal Government agencies, commissions, and parastatals that would either be scrapped, merged, or subsumed in a bid to cut the cost of governance.

Falana who joined workers under the aegis of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), seized the moment to fault the presidency’s move.

The senior lawyer said “not less than 100,000 workers will lose their jobs”, maintaining that implementing the report was not a solution to the hardship bedeviling Nigerians.

“The Federal Government announced its intention to implement the Oransaye Report. Great Nigerian people, in case you are not aware of the implication of that report; it is a 12-year-old report. The government has decided to pick it up from the dustbin; a report that was signed by the Jonathan administration.

“We are therefore telling the government: if you want to reduce the cost of governance in Nigeria, it is not by implementing the Oransaye report. Let me tell you, Oransaye studied 262 agencies of government, today Nigeria has 1,360 ministries and parastatal. Where are you going to start from?” he asked.

Falana commended the NLC for coming out to protest the high cost of living, describing the development as a major victory in the annals of Nigeria’s history.

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, on Tuesday, joined the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress in its peaceful protest

During the protest, Makinde assured the protesters that the current hardship would soon be over.

The workers began their protest from the NLC state secretariat, Agodi in Ibadan, the state capital, down to Gate – NTA – Yemetu roundabout where Governor Makinde joined the protesting workers.

The governor said,

“I am aware of the hardship in town and the difficulty the people are going through but I will be part of the generation that will fix the country.”

He also assured the workers that their letters of protest and complaints would be delivered to President Bola Tinubu.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Olayemi Cardoso, has distanced himself from the economic woes Nigerians are currently experiencing.

Cardoso said he and his team are not responsible for the prevailing economic challenges Nigerians are facing.

He spoke at after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.

Cardoso assured that the apex bank was taking necessary steps to get the country’s fiscal and monetary health back to normal.

Asked if the policies introduced by the CBN under his watch are responsible for the economic challenges in the country, Cardoso said: “I laugh at that question but it’s not a laughing matter and I think it is very important for Nigerians to understand that the Central Bank Governor — I and my team — are not responsible for the woes that we have today; we are part of the solution.

“We are determined to ensure that we work hard to get out of the mess that Nigeria is in.

“We assumed responsibility in a time of crisis of confidence. There was a crisis of confidence and you may all want to go to bed and wish that crisis of confidence was not there but it was, and we can’t turn back the clock.

“All we can do is do the difficult things to make a bad situation better and I do believe that the efforts that we are making are beginning to bring back confidence because to be frank, without confidence in your business, you are not going to get far.”