The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC has been described as a veritable Pan-Nigeria institution which must not be lost.
Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo made the assertion on Tuesday while addressing delegates and other dignitaries at the opening of the two day thirteenth quadrennial Delegates’ conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC, holding in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
According to the Vice President, the NLC is a representative of Nigerians across ethnic, religious and gender lines, which made it imperative for it to uphold it’s fundamental role as a respected pan-Nigerian institution.
He said that the theme of the conference “Building People’s Power, national Unity and the Quest for a New Social Contract”, could not have come at a better time than now when the nation and her people were set for another round of a general election in the country.
Professor Osinbajo challenged the NLC to stand up to its role of mobilising both the Independent National Electoral Commission and Nigerians to deliver an election that would stand the test of time despite the many differences facing the nation today.
“… the Congress and other pan-Nigerian organizations are far more representative of the needs experience of our people than the one dimensional group that tends to define us narrowly as members of ethnic communities or members of faiths or creeds.
“Indeed, those who hold on pathologically to our differences as a show greed for defining our national condition are missing the evolving realities on the ground.
“The fact is that despite the physic-rectory of the Garman lodge and the utterances of those who profit from its armory, Nigerians do not hate each other; everyday, millions of Nigerians, unite by common causes, problems and issues form trenches, form friendships and partner to do businesses …”, said the Vice President of Nigeria.
Professor Osinbajo emphasied that Nigeria’s diversity has never been a problem but rather a strength.
Lingering hardship
Welcoming the guests, out going President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, called on the Nigerian Government to as a matter of urgency to address what he called the lingering hardship brought on Nigerans by the new naira design policy of the government.
He said that many Nigerians could neither buy nor sell for inavailability of new notes and inaccessibility of the old ones, blaming the development on poor implementation of the policy.
“What we are witnessing in Nigeria presently is that you have your money in the bank, yet you cannot access it because your bank cannot give it to you.
“In other climes, when there a new currency design policy, the old note remains a legal tender side by side the new notes until the last old note enters the bank, but our case is different…”Wabba said.
He said that Nigeria’s leadership must recognise and accept that the nation’s economy is rural in nature saying that this must be taken into consideration while considering any financial policy.
Minister of Labour and employment, Dr Chris Ngige in his intervention, said that considering social contracts called for the acknowledgment that “we are living in a changing world of work characterised by technological transformation that have grown amongst other things, new forms of work and trade which hitherto not factored into our traditional mode of employment relationships.
“We now have teleworkers, IT and APP based employment – recently I registered the Amalgamated Union of App-Based Transport Workers of Nigeria (AUATWON) as a Trade Union”.
He said he expects such new trades to continue to emerge saying that change is continuous.
Areas of commendation
While commendating the out going leadership of the NLC under its President, Ayuba Wabba, Ngige noted three areas of commendation.
“They were courageously and audibly the “voice” of the people during the National Minimum Wage (NMW) Negotiation which gave rise to the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 by which the NMW was reviewed.
“Also, the out flowing Consequential Adjustment for ALL Public Servants was achieved by them. Furthermore, flowing from the NMW negotiations, the cheery news is that the old Act has been upgraded to reflect and conform to the changing world of work to eschew decent work deficit and any form of unfair labour practices; for instance, the NMW review has a 5 – year duration that will be adhered to by stakeholders, workers can now approach the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) for enforcement of their rights to receive the NMW.
“The NLC leadership took Nigeria workers whom they are representing to the Governing Body of the ILO and the outgoing President of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba attained the height of his trade union career and became the President of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) – the Nigerian workers were really represented adequately….”, Ngige said.
For the first time in the over forty years of the NLC, this is one Delegates’ Conference that all the contestants will be returned unopposed, a feat the outgoing NLC President has described as unprecedented.
Lateefah Ibrahim
