May Day: NLC, TUC Task Buhari On Last-Minute Looting

BY EDMOND ODOK AND SEGUN ADEBAYO – Organised Labour has challenged President Muhammad Buhari to immediately halt what it described as last-minute looting of the treasury by out-going governors, ministers and other political office holders across the country.

Raising the alarm during the May Day celebration yesterday, leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and their counterparts from the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) urged the President to do everything within his constitutional powers to stop such unhealthy development in the polity.

In a joint address delivered at the National Workers’ Day celebration held at Eagle Square, Abuja, the two Labour centres also sounded a note of warning to the incoming administration that they would resist any hike in the pump price of petrol in the name of subsidy removal or any other guise.

Warning of the last-minute treasury looting in their May Day speech, titled; “Workers Rights and Socio-economic Justice” and jointly read by NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, and President of TUC, Comrade Festus Osifo, the Organised Labour also used the occasion to demand an investigation into the N12 billion spent by the Aviation Ministry to buy 10 fire trucks.

Similarly, both bodies called on the Federal Government to ignore the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s advice on tax increases and all its economic advice “as they are poisonous to our nation’s economic health.”

Making further demands on the federal government, the NLC and TUC asked that “the privatisation of the electricity sector be reviewed in favour of Nigerians, and the Judiciary should purge itself and redeem our democracy by its handling of the various election petitions before it.

“The outgoing President must take steps to ensure that those in his administration planning last-minute heists on the nation’s treasury are stopped.”

According to them, 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.”

Also speaking on Nigeria’s worrying debt profile, the Trade Centres acknowledged that the country is facing a serious debt trap, lamenting that “Our debt profile as a nation must worry every patriot and it worries us not just as workers but also 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 N77 trillion, 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 at around U$42 billion and is increasing and the debt to GDP ratio is about 39 per cent. Then, the most worrying, is 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 an additional N23 from somewhere just to pay interest on our debt.”

Both bodies made the submissions as President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, vowed to give more than a minimum wage to Nigerian workers, promising instead to give them a “living wage.”

On his part, President Buhari charged the incoming Tinubu administration to continue respecting workers’ rights, just as the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) tasked incoming administrations at all levels to initiate, reinvigorate and focus on policies that promote inclusiveness, protect small and medium-sized enterprises, grow the middle class and prioritise infrastructural development.

For the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the government and employers must prioritize the welfare of workers in the country.

In his May Day celebration Statement, the CAN President, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, greeted Nigerian workers and emphasized their importance in the development of any nation, noting that workers are the engine room of any economy and the bedrock of any society.

He expressed his concern about the current state of the Nigerian economy, which has increased the vulnerability of workers while urging the government and employers to create more job opportunities and improve the working conditions of those already employed.

“We also want to use this occasion to express our solidarity with Nigerian workers who have been adversely affected by the current economic situation.”

Not left out of the May Day celebration with Nigerian workers, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) urged them to reinforce their resistance against anti-democratic forces seeking to take control of Nigeria.

The PDP lauded Nigerian workers for their resilience, loyalty and patriotism in the service of our fatherland despite the sufferings imposed by the All Progressives Congress, APC, administration in the last eight years.

The PDP’s message, signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Debo Ologunagba, saluted Nigerian workers and urged them to remain focused on deploying “their strength and pivotal position in our country to protect and defend the Nation’s Constitutional Democracy from political manipulators, who are desperate to dash the hope of Nigerians for a credible democratic leadership.”

“Alleging that the APC had “brought untold life-discounting experiences to Nigerians in the last eight years,” it said: “The deliberate suppression of the rights, well-being and opportunities of Nigerian workers reflects the ugly reality of the inhumanity, insensitivity and callousness of the APC administration which relishes in inflicting pain and suffering on citizens.

“The PDP notes that many Nigerians, especially workers are hurting over the outcome of the February 25, 2023, Presidential election which was characterized by multiple violations, manipulations, alteration of genuine election results and brazen subversion of the Will of the people.”