Labour at yesterday’s May Day celebration, told President Muhammadu
Buhari that workers and ordinary Nigerians were beginning to lose faith
in the change mantra of the All Progressives Congress, APC-led Federal
Government.
The President, however, assured workers and Nigerians generally that his
government was determined to tackle, headlong, all socio-economic ills
troubling the nation. He said the government would evolve solutions to
emerging threats to the well being of the people and the realization of
sustainable development as well as growth anchored on equity and social
justice.
But the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress of
Nigeria, TUC, were unanimous in condemning increasing poverty,
unemployment, insecurity, erratic power supply, fuel scarcity, and
called on government at all levels to urgently address the mounting
hardship and frustration in the country.
Though both the Ayuba
Wabba and Joe Ajaero factions of the NLC held their May Day rallies in
Abuja and Lagos respectively, they were united on issues affecting
workers and other Nigerians, and called for improved economy and
well-being of the people.
Addressing the gathering at Eagle Square in Abuja, factional leader of
the NLC, Wabba, urged the President to provide people-based actions and
programmes and not elitist programmes. He said the government should
come up with discernible strategies and directions that would tell
Nigerians where his government was headed economically.
Privatisation
He also implored the federal government to stop further attempts at privatisation, especially of railways, return local refineries to full capacity and invest in new refineries and in, the short-run, sort out the supply bottle-neck that had made product availability difficult in Nigeria. He urged the government to discourage all companies destroying collective bargaining platforms in order to encourage decent workplaces and enhanced terms and conditions of service for Nigerian workers. Wabba appealed to President Buhari to initiate a deliberate policy to build domestic industrial capacity, not just by stimulating private sector investments, but also by investing in medium and large scale industries in critical sectors of the economy. He equally urged him to set up a special task force to stop all the violence and bloodletting spreading like wild fire all over the country”.
Insecurity
On insecurity, he said: “At the beginning of the year, we had cause to
assert that on the security front, our armed forces within the year,
redeemed their reputation as a resilient fighting force and fought the
Boko Haram insurgents, inflicting heavy defeats on them in the North
Eastern part of the country.
MAY DAY —From left: President, Trade Union Congress, Comrade Bobboi
Kaigama; Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Mohammed Bello;
Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige and factional
President, Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, during the May
Day Celebration in Abuja,yesterday. “We said that our conviction was that though the war was still on-going,
Nigerians now believed that it was only a matter of time before these
evil forces are defeated
“As workers, who have
been direct victims of the violence in the North East, we want to use
this May Day to restate our call for Mr. President to combine the
military success with a marshal plan for the reconstruction of the
devastated infrastructure of the geo-political zone.
“The ruling APC government in its manifesto, promised to create three
million jobs annually. We have waited one year for the government to
bring out its blueprints on how it intends to go about achieving this.
Congress will seek audience with Mr. President to get more information
on this important matter.”
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