The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has mourned the passing of former President Muhammadu Buhari, describing him as a leader who identified with Nigerian workers and their values and had put them first.

NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero in a message on Monday, noted that although the former President fought the unions when he led the country as a Military Head of State, he however returned as a civilian President and worked assiduously towards correcting his wrongs against the workers.

He said: “Buhari gave his best to a country he strongly felt was in a state of disrepair. He had two chances to fix the country. First, as a young angry military general and second, as a conciliatory civilian president with a fatherly disposition. What the results were are entirely left to history and the individual.

“Whatever those verdicts might be, it is near-unanimous that Buhari was associated with a single-mindedness of purpose (which some ascribed to stubbornness); and protecting the sovereignty and dignity of Nigeria (as he understood it).

“For us in the unions, Buhari came fighting the unions and mass-retrenching workers leading to indescribable suffering during his tenure as a military head of state.

“However, as a civilian president, Buhari saw to it no worker was laid off (not even during the Covid-19 pandemic). He repeatedly gave facilities to state governments to clear the backlogs of salaries and pensions as well as to enable them regularly pay salaries (although some governors betrayed this trust).

“Although Buhari increased the pump-price of petroleum products, he stoutly refused to sell off the refineries or devalued the Naira. Buhari consistently identified with worker-issues/values including resisting pressure to adopt fundamentalist market policies as part of the process of protecting workers and ordinary people.”

Deeply saddened by his death, the NLC noted that even though Buhari had a history of long duration of illness and hospitalisation, his death still came as a shock to Nigerian workers.

“We must admit, his death has come as a surprise even as his first term was marked by long spells in hospital. But he emerged from it all strong and impregnable. Even out of office, his ramrod frame and long measured strides in or out of his farm were thought to be eloquent testimony of his good health. But we are all mortal.

“In the late President therefore we have lost a leader who corrected his mistakes against workers, during his second coming; who stood with the people and country, a leader who truly put the country first no matter the cost. May Allah forgive his sins as well as grant him peaceful repose.”