Take COVID-19 vaccine jab, NLC tells workers

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Monday called on workers to take COVID -19 jab.

At a press conference held at the headquarters of the congress in Abuja, the president of the congress who is also president of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, argued that the COVID-19 vaccine has given all humans the chance to fight the virus and stay alive.

The federal government two weeks ago made vaccination compulsory for all government workers.

Comrade Wabba however urged government to use the tool of persuasion and conviction rather than force to get workers and the general populace to take the vaccine.

He admitted that many view COVID-19 vaccination with caution but warned that it would be foolhardy to elevate caution above scientific evidence and facts from public health records.

He said: “I urge workers all over the world to take advantage of the vaccine and keep themselves, their families and their colleagues at work safe and free from morbid threats of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We urge government and other employers of labour to make special arrangement for workers to access the vaccine at the workplace.”

Apparently trying to give reasons for workers to take the COVID-19 vaccination, Comrade Wabba said: “ The COVID-19 pandemic has brought some of the biggest strains , stress and squeeze to the workplace.

“Thousands of workers died. Many of the dead from the global workforce were frontline workers. As at the third week of October 2021, more than 180,000 health workers world over had lost their lives to COVID-19. The high rate of fatality is unfortunate, but it also highlights the sacrifice that workers have made in combating and containing the deadly virus. Many more workers have lost their jobs and means of livelihood to COVID-19.”

Saying that the human race can rise to the challenge of the pandemic, he posited that apart from the accelerated scientific efforts at understanding the epidemiology of the virus, science has raised the bar a little higher with the breakthrough discovery of the vaccine which has help reduce the death rate and hospital admissions.