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The Nigeria Labour Congress on Tuesday spelt out the issues it believes should shape the policy direction of the in-coming Muhammadu Buhari government.
Although the congress recently restated its opposition to any plan by government to remove fuel subsidy, the NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, however, said the labour movement would support any legislation, policy and strategy aimed at immediate restoration of regular supply and guarantee sustained availability through enhanced local refining capacity.
The subsisting “painful, injurious and avoidable fuel scarcity”, he said, was artificial, with a sinister motive.
He added that the diversification of the country’s economy from oil was long overdue.
He said the need to diversify the economy has been made more urgent by recent developments in the crude oil production in the global market scenes, especially the discovery of shale oil and new findings across the world.
The NLC demanded the full audit of the power sector privatisation process, particularly the issues responsible for the unending darkness the country has been thrown into, pointing out that the policy has, in the short term, achieved the exact opposite of what it was set out to do.
The economy, the Labour movement noted, has continued to register artificial growth without jobs, by bringing benefits to only a few, urging the new administration to ensure that it worked to ensure that the economy provided jobs and benefits to others.
Socially, the NLC underlined the importance of national security, which it said has remained a major concern requiring immediate and enduring solution, saying recognizing the causes, particularly of the situation in the North East was of strategic importance,
Education and health services, the NLC stated, were in shambles and needed a declaration of a state of emergency by government, while the national housing deficit of 20 million homes remained a national embarrassment that must be filled.
“Millions of unemployed youths constitute clear and present danger deserving of immediate arrest complete with introduction of full social and unemployment benefits,” Mr. Wabba said.
He identified corruption as a national cancer that must be dealt with for the sake of national survival, pointing out that the cost of governance at all levels, particularly in the legislature, was “very high and morally reprehensible.”
Although Mr. Wabba urged the government to take steps to bring down corruption and reduce waste in the system, he however warned against rationalisation of personnel, as personnel emoluments constitute an insignificant fraction of cost of governance.
On labour issues, the NLC said despite Nigeria’s potentials, the country’s economic growth has co-existed with a high level of poverty and inequality, skewed towards making the rich get richer, with no attempt to make it trickle down to the extreme poor.
“The most affected, have been workers and working families under the yoke of poor remuneration, uncertainty in the workplace, absence of reasonable social benefits, vulnerable work conditions and retrenchments,” the NLC said.
The congress wants the in-coming government to focus on job security and improved compensation structure as well as standardized social dialogue to stem inequality and social discontent.
Apart from clearing the outstanding workers’ wages by all tiers of government, which have remained for two to eight months, the NLC called for the review of the National Minimum Wage last negotiated in 2010.
The case for a review, the NLC pointed out, was made compelling by spiraling inflation and the gross devaluation of the national currency (Naira), both of which have rendered the N18, 000 minimum wage meaningless.
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