As Nigerian workers join workers all over the world to celebrate this year’s Workers Day, also known as May Day, President Muhammadu Buhari has urged the incoming administration to respect workers’ rights.
This came just as the organised labour has called on Buhari to stop the outgoing political officeholders who have allegedly embarked on last-minute looting of the treasury.
Organised labour also said that it has the responsibility to ensure that the right characters access leadership positions to guarantee and protect the rights of workers as an adjunct to socioeconomic justice.
The President said this at the Eagles Square in Abuja where thousands of workers gathered to celebrate Workers Day which is marked globally every May 1.
Buhari, who was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, urged the incoming administration to continue with workers’ rights as ratified by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
He said, “I encourage the incoming Administration to continue to respect workers’ rights imbued with socio-economic development and driven by the four pillars of the decent work agent to promote jobs and enterprises, guaranteeing rights at work, extending social protection, and promoting social dialogue for consensus building and maintain a Sound National Industrial Relations System.
“Workers’ rights coupled with socio-economic justice make a happy workplace. We, therefore, agree that a fair economic structure targeted at creating opportunities for all to succeed irrespective of sex, race/ethnicity, age, disability, creed, religion, etc, is a sine qua non for progress and development.”
•NLC cautions next govt against increase in pump price of petrol
Meanwhile, the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in a joint address delivered at Eagle Square, the venue of the Workers Day celebration, cautioned the incoming government against any hike in the pump price of petrol in the name of subsidy removal or any other guise.
In the May Day speech titled “Workers’ Rights and Socioeconomic Justice” jointly read by NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and President of TUC, Festus Osifo, they called for the investigation of the spending of N12bn by the Aviation Ministry to buy 10 fire trucks.
The NLC and TUC equally called on the Federal Government not to heed only the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) advice on tax increases, saying any increase will be poisonous to “our nation’s economic health.”
It stated, “The outgoing President must take steps to ensure that those in his administration planning last minute heist of the nation’s treasury are stopped.
“The nation’s “economy is on autopilot struggling on its own to survive while those entrusted to manage it kept throwing filth and injecting toxins into it.”
They lamented that the nation had gone deeper into a serious debt trap, saying “Our debt profile as a nation must worry every patriot and it worries us not just as workers but as citizens of Nigeria. We have warned repeatedly of the dangers of excessive borrowing of foreign exchange-denominated loans and alerted the nation of the inherent danger urging the nation’s economic managers to desist but all of these fell on deaf ears with some very unfortunate attempts at justification.
“This prodigious borrowing has almost left our nation’s economy stranded and fiscally insufficient. It is projected by the Debt Management Office (DMO) that by this month, our total Public debt will be about N77trn meaning that by the time this administration exits on the 29th, each Nigerian will be owing about N384, 860 only.
“Today, our external debt profile stands around U$42bn and is increasing and the debt to GDP is about 39 per cent then the most worrying, our debt service as of 2022 to revenue stands at 81 per cent, but this year’s budget shows that it is at 123 per cent meaning that we will be unable to service our debts without borrowing that is for every N100 we earn as income, we need to borrow additional N23 from somewhere just to pay interests on our debt.
“It looks like, in our nation, the only reason we borrow is to steal because we cannot see its benefits for the people. We insist that while nations can borrow for productive reasons such as investments in well-thought-out projects, it is unhealthy to borrow for consumption.
“Even a child knows this and that is why we are surprised that at this dying period of this administration, it has decided to receive loans of $800m as it claimed to cushion the suffering it plans to inflict on the masses of this nation. If this is not a Cash out then, it is entirely ill-advised and counter-productive given the history of such in our nation.
“We call on the Federal Government to consider the incorporation of transition fuels such as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as an addition to currently available energy in Nigeria. The use of Compressed Natural Gas which is a lot cheaper can also be a long-term alternative to petrol thus saving Nigerians from the current and future spiralling cost of petrol.
“We urge our economic managers to be more prudent and seek ways to deliberately diversify our economy by deepening manufacturing capacity and investing in human capital that would drive youth creativity which is key to industrialisation.
“We advocate a freeing of Capital for MSMEs and then a deliberate direct investment by governments at all levels in setting up manufacturing entities across the nation.
“Hiding under the neo-liberal maxim that government has no business in business rings hollow and not true. In a weak economy like ours, Government has business in business and we must invest in businesses to drive economic growth in our nation.”
Decrying the mismanagement of the country’s energy sector, NLC, and TUC, said, “Any nation that cannot manage its energy resources effectively and efficiently must be doomed. One of the key factors holding us down as a nation is our inability to manage this sector effectively for the benefit of the citizens and the nation.
“Power however it is generated remains key to jump-starting any economy while oil and gas are critical to a robust energy success in every country. It is, therefore, crucial for the government to work with the people to create frameworks that would make energy work for Nigerians instead of for the few who have succeeded in capturing the state.
“For decades now, we have used all forms of persuasion to make the Federal Government fix the refineries and possibly build new ones but all to no avail. There seems to be a deliberate sabotage of our domestic refineries to ensure that it remains none operational so that few fat cats will continue profiting from the sinful importation of refined petroleum products into the country at the detriment of the Economy.
“Our dear country extracts crude, exports to refine, and imports to sell to the citizens and turn around to talk about subsidy. We insist that we will no longer allow any increase in petroleum product prices in whatever guise until all of our local refineries are reactivated and fully operational. We will not allow the continued gang-up of the elite against Nigerian workers and masses to continue unabated.
“Congress has been following the activities going on at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Trading Limited, especially as regards assigning products to marketers. We also watch with keen interest the goings on at the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to ensure issues of cargo clearance, tracking compliance, route inspection, metering calibration/maintenance, accurate delivery to trucks, record keeping, etc, are expeditiously taken care of. We demand the inclusion of NUPENG and PENGASSAN in the Steering Committee set up by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).”
Earlier, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, Among others, said though the Federal Government had done much, “We also recognise that there is a lot more work to be done to improve the lives of Nigerian workers.
“We acknowledge the fact that many Nigerian workers continue to face significant challenges, including low take-home pay, lack of job security, and unsatisfactory working conditions.
“We are committed to addressing these issues and creating a more favourable environment for Nigerian workers to thrive. The solution to these challenges will not come overnight but as a work in progress.”
Ngige also said that university workers will benefit from the 40 per cent pay rise for peculiar allowance if they conclude their Collective Bargaining Agreement with their employers, adding that the money has already been budgeted in the 2023 Appropriation with January being the commencement date.
