Labour
Workers, Leaders Task Govt on Food, Jobs
By Dele Fanimo, Guardian 2/5/08
May 3, 2008 - 12:20:27 PM

THE Labour movement and eminent cleric, His Eminence Sunday Olatunji Makinde, yesterday tasked the Federal Government on infrastructure development and employment, as Nigerian workers joined their counterparts worldwide to mark May Day.

Labour's call came at a May Day rally in Abuja where President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua solicited workers' support to enable his administration to build a new Nigeria.

Former Finance Minister, Olu Falae, also enjoined the government to improve workers' welfare.

The Labour movement in the country also called for massive investment in railway and power sector to realise the Vision 2020 policy as enunciated by President Yar'Adua.

In his May Day message, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Abdulwahed Omar, lauded President Yar'Adua for resisting pressure to disburse all the excess crude oil revenue to the states and stopping Morgan Stanley from investing it in foreign capital markets on behalf of the country.

The NLC said: "We should invest the funds in building up new and sustainable assets for the future stability and growth of the national economy. Our view is that if these investments are run commercially, they can guarantee substantial revenues to governments in the future.

"Beyond that, they will naturally empower the country to develop strategic infrastructures and transform an exhaustible resources into sustainable assets from which the future generations can benefit."

While allying itself with the position of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, which called for modalities for joint investments between the Federal Government and states, NLC posited that excess crude funds should be invested to catalyse the provision of urban infrastructure, especially power and railway.

The said: "We recommend investments in the power sector and railway development because they are the pillars of the modern industrial economy. It is alarming that Nigeria, with a population of 140 million people, has an installed capacity for electricity of only 6,000 megawatts. Compare this to Brazil with a population of 188 million and electricity capacity of 90,000 megawatts; South Korea with a population of 49 million and capacity of 44,000 megawatts and South Africa with a population of 47 million and capacity of 40,000 megawatts.

"We cannot hope to develop as a country when the whole country is in darkness. Electricity is the lifeblood of modern industry, services and infrastructure. We have to bring up electricity supply to reasonable levels."

The Labour leader noted that it was unsustainable as well as wasteful to rely exclusively on road transportation for the haulage of goods and transportation of persons. "Therefore, there is an urgent need for a master plan to develop a modern rail system," Omar stressed.

Emphasising the role of human capital development in economic advancement of any nation, the NLC asked President Yar'Adua to quickly resolve the on-going industrial dispute between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and government so that education can take its rightful place even as the nation strives to become one of the largest 20 economies in the world by year 2020.

It described the unresolved crisis brought about by the sack of 49 University of Ilorin lecturers as embarrassing to the government, which continues to undermine peace in the university system.

The union also expressed worry over the on-going global food crisis, maintaining that the solution to the problem does not lie in the adoption of panic approach like releasing grains from the strategic reserves, but requires more incisive creativity.

It said: "While recognising that there is an emerging global food crisis, government needs to take urgent steps to prevent mass hunger in our land. With the rains and planting season now with us, deliberate interventions by governments at all levels need to be initiated to ensure adequate planting and adequate supply of inputs to farmers at reasonable and affordable costs.

"Innovative ways must be found to encourage farmers to increase acreage under cultivation."

In his message to workers at the rally, President Yar'Adua, represented by the Minister of Labour, Hassan Lawal, said: "It is imperative for trade unions to accept responsibilities along with government in its on-going efforts to create a new Nigerian anchored on social justice, due process and the rule of law.

"Labour should therefore, partner with government to ensure the emergence of a nation that cares for its people. It is only by doing so that government efforts in ensuring promotion of democracy, good governance, sustainable growth and social justice can be driven to a logical conclusion."

Makinde, the prelate of the Methodist Church Nigeria, called on the Federal Government to save the industrial sector, which could help check rising unemployment level.

A statement by the Church's Head, Media and Communications, Rev. Oladapo Daramola, said Makinde described the nation's workforce and its leadership - the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) - as the bastion of hope for the people.

His words: "I pass on good wishes to the Nigerian workforce for its commitment and patriotic efforts toward ensuring a better country, I wish to call on the Federal Government to rescue our dying industrial sector. The only way to guarantee this is to make sure that the pathetic energy situation in our country is addressed.

"Our factories are winding up and closing operations because the cost of doing business in Nigeria in the last few years has hit an all-time high. Investors are becoming more sceptical by the day while the existing manufacturing companies are cutting down their workforce.

"Its ripple effect is unquantifiable. People are losing their jobs in thousands and homes are becoming endangered because their breadwinners have been retrenched.

"We are then left to depend on importation of almost everything, more than ever before, in this country. This is affecting the cost of commodities, even the essential ones, and it is not good for consumers who are groaning under severe economic hardship.

"Look at the textile industry, it is in ruins. Now, all our people depend on are the inferior commodities being imported from countries like China and India. Something needs to be done urgently."

The cleric also advised companies that still engage in casualisation and enslavement of their workforce to retrace their steps.

According to him, Nigerian workers are labouring for the economic survival of the nation and must be treated better.

Makinde also called on the Federal Government to meet all its agreement with Labour to help the nation achieve its set goals and objectives, especially the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He also enjoined government and ASUU to reach an agreement to save the country's ailing education sector.

His words: "Our education sector at all levels has suffered enough. Our children are turning to crime daily because of these frequent disagreements between the Federal Government and Labour (ASUU, NASU, SSANU etc.).

"An agreement must be reached urgently which will bring a long lasting solution to the worsening standard of education in our universities, polytechnics and other tertiary institutions."

Falae, also a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and presidential candidate of the All Peoples Party (APP) Alliance for Democracy (AD), called on President Yar'Adua to improve on the lot of the nation's workers.

Speaking to The Guardian on the Workers' Day celebration yesterday, Falae said that about a year after President Yar'Adua came to power little or nothing had been done to improve labour's welfare.

Falae, who kicked against the proposed raise in electricity tariff, said: "President Yar'Adua is not a rigid person and he is not arrogant, but he has not done much for the workers since he came to power. He needs to do a lot to reduce the high level of poverty in the country."

Falae said the proposed plan to increase tariff on power was tantamount to double jeopardy for the citizenry.

"If I am getting electricity, there is no problem if you increase the tariff. But where I am not getting electricity, it will be jeopardy if you increase the tariff," he stressed.

On the on-going probes by the National Assembly, he urged the President to ensure that justice was done.

"The National Assembly has the right to probe power and other sectors as it is doing. However, the probes should not be targeted at any person. It should be to probe government activities," he said.

"The President should take the outcome of the probes seriously. If he sees it as another Oputa Panel for people to talk, he would be mistaken because Nigerians need justice," Falae added.