NLC: public officers must be accountable

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said public officers must be accountable to the people that elected them, arguing that they should learn a lesson from the last general elections through which the people spoke with their permanent voter cards (PVCs) and sacked a non-performing government.

The workers also added that the election is a warning that the era of impunity is over in the country.

Speaking during this year’s May Day celebration in Abuja, President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said the achievements of Gen Buhari’s government would depend on the manner in which his administration immediately hits the ground, post-inauguration; to deliver the change it promised Nigerians.

‘On the part of the NLC, we are already working towards the presentation of our views on the state of the nation and our perspectives on how we can all move forward together as a nation. We look forward to presenting our positions to General Buhari when we eventually meet with him as soon as he assumes office. However, we must seize this moment to make pronouncement on a few urgent national issues,” he said.

Wabba said the social challenges facing the Nigerian workers are many but it appears that most compelling are uncertainties in the work place.

He said many Nigerian workers are no longer sure of the commitment of employers to the fundamental work place principle of timely and adequate pay for work done.

He said: “The gale of unpaid salary arrears in different public and private establishments has only compounded the perennial injustice of poor compensation for the sweat and blood of Nigerian workers. To crown frustrations faced by the average worker in Nigeria is the overt and covert threat of retrenchment devoid of reasonable social benefit or retirement plans. Delay and outright refusal by some states and federal agencies to pay the gratuities and pension of our retirees have forced our older colleagues into an undignified post work life. This is most unfortunate, reprehensible, abominable and condemnable.”

He said the nation at the moment is confronted with daunting socio-economic challenges underscored by mounting unemployment, appalling infrastructural deficit, unprecedented cost in governance and corruption, abysmal poverty, and insecurity, among others.

“The fact that our national economy is almost prostrate is no longer news. The fall in the price of crude oil in the international market, the gross mismanagement of our national resources by the political class and their cronies in the private sector and the failure of successive Nigerian governments to build critical infrastructure that can support the diversification of the national economy have all contributed to the construction of our narrative of economic woes,” he said.

He added that the continuous devaluation of the naira, has dealt devastating blow on the purchasing power of the average Nigerian worker, adding that this is unacceptable.

“The last national minimum wage of N18,000 which was negotiated in 2010, is clearly no longer of any meaningful economic value to workers as the inflationary trends engendered by the continuing devaluation of the naira has made the minimum wage now grossly inadequate.

“The above situation plus the fact that the five yearly circle provided for periodic review of the national minimum wage is almost at hand, we wish to use this May Day to give notice that we shall formally table a request for a new national minimum wage for the consideration of the tripartite social partners, as soon as the incoming government is sworn in. This has become pertinent given current economic realities,” Wabba said.