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ORGANISED 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
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.
"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."
It's a shame —Ajaero
Similarly, Ajaero, while addressing workers, after a long
procession from NLC office at Yaba through the Funsho
Williams Way, at Iponri, before returning to the front of the
National Stadium, Lagos, said: “It is a shame that we have
continued to import petroleum products. It is also a shame
that we have also privatised it so that the products have
become inaccessible to majority of the citizens, causing
serious distortions to our economic processes.
"Fuel scarcity has persisted far longer than ever, f
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