By Ben Adoga, Abuja
The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC has called on the Federal Government and other governments to prioritise human capital development as that is the only way to promote trade.
This concern was raised at the NLC/ ILO programme on Africa Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA in Abuja.
Speaking at the opening season of the NLC/ ILO two – day workshop on: The Impact of Trade and Investment Agreements on Decent Work and Sustainability Development: Role of Trade Unions, Comrade Audu Amba, Deputy President, NLC in Bolingo Hotel, Abuja insisted that decent work must be the centre of all agreements.
He said it would be tragic to keep workers and their representative trade unions from current and future negotiations on the eight AfCFTA protocols.
NLC Vice President said that workers are at heart of trade and investment and are those who engender productivity which manifests in tradeable hoods and set ices which are the basis for trade and investment.
He warned that the NLC demands that the Af CFTA must not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. “We insist that workers deserve not just their wages but decent working conditions.”
He also noted: “It is in the light of promoting decent work that we must draw the attention of policy drivers and gate keepers of the AfCFTA that they must never lose sight of the bigger picture of productivity. This demands that the drivers of the AfCFTA must prioritise the conditions that enable optimum productivity such as decent social conditions including quality healthcare, robust education system, social protection mechanisms and resilient infrastructure across the continent. We call on our governments to prioritise human capacity development and efficient infrastructural outlay.”
He said in all the agreements, the AfCFTA should not erode decent work
In his opening remark, Comrade Emmanuel Ogbuaja, General Secretary of NLC noted that the interest shown by the NLC which has inspired the meeting is because the NLC believes in the potentials of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area to open up the socio -economic opportunities for wealth creation, employment generation and decent work in Africa.
Ogbuaja noted that it has been projected that the AfCFTA will not only boost Inta – Africa trade but will also generate up to $3.4 trillion in the combined Gross Domestic Products of African Union member states, thus curbing the grand deficits in trade stacked against Africa owing to historical distortion of trade floe outside the African continent I stead of within the continent.
“It is important that decent work is taken seriously by the policy drivers of the AfCFTA in order to ensure that the lofty aspirations of the AfCFTA instrument is not strangulated by workplace dislocations due to workers’ mistreatment.”
The Free Trade Area engagement would continue Tuesday and was attended both virtually and physical participants across the country.
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