Nigerian workers are resilient, but face hardships says Wabba

President of The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has hailed Nigerian workers and pensioners for their resilience in 2017, pulling through, what he described as challenging year.

Wabba however, tasked the Federal Government to put words to action by addressing the numerous challenges that reared its head in the country in 2017, in other for 2018 to be a better year for Nigerian working people and pensioners.

According to Wabba the previous year saw the working people, pensioners and other Nigerians facing series of daunting socio-economic and security challenges, even though they had hoped that the year would offer succour for the masses.
He said despite the huge revenue that the states have received through the Federal Government intervention funds to clear arrears of unpaid salaries and pensions in many states of the federation, coupled with additional payment of three tranches of windfall, (Paris Club debt refunds), states like Osun, Benue, Ekiti, Bayelsa and several others entered 2018 with huge arrears spanning up to ten or more months of wages and pensions.

“Despite the huge revenue that the states have received through the Federal Government intervention funds to clear arrears of unpaid salaries and pensions in many states of the federation, coupled with additional payment of three tranches of windfall, (Paris Club debt refunds), states such as Kogi, Osun, Benue, Ekiti, Bayelsa and several others entered 2018 with huge arrears spanning up to 10 or more months of wages and pensions.
“Under these conditions, Nigerian workers, pensioners and their families remained the most despondent group in an economy that even the well-to-do are groaning and struggling to survive.

“No wonder, our country is one of the worst, known for having many hungry people in the world according to the World Hunger Index report 2017.”

Wabba said as the country approaches the 2019 general elections, workers will certainly not forget governors that subjected them to untold hardship by refusing to pay their earned entitlements on the excuse of scarcity of resources while choosing to pay themselves, their political appointees and cronies’ huge packages.

He said, “We note the positive sides of 2017, which include the fact that we statistically moved out of recession in the course of the year; the continuing fight against corruption, improvement in the security situation a some progress in agricultural yields; in addition to efforts to implement the macro-economic recovery measures.”

On the implementation of a new national minimum wage, Wabba said it is the expectation of Nigerian workers that the committee under the chairmanship of Ms Ama Pepple, former Head of Service of the Federation, would expeditiously conclude its assignment.

He said this is because a new national minimum wage has been due for over a year now. “It is also our expectation that upon completion of negotiations, the National Assembly will give the executive bill that will emerge, an accelerated passage for the new national minimum wage to become a reality before the end of the 3rd quarter of 2018,” he said.

On the fuel scarcity challenge, the NLC president said Nigeria is the only major producer of crude oil in the world, but still depends on importation of refined products from abroad.

He said as long as this remains the case, Nigerians would continue to be subjected to this intermittent scarcity of fuel.

According to him, the Congress had explicitly stated this fact in their 188-page “Report of the NLC Committee on Deregulation,” submitted to the Yar’Adua government in 2010; and which they gave to top officials of this administration when they assumed office in 2015.