President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday in Abuja declared his administration’s commitment to among other things, boost national productivity by taking all necessary actions to end incessant strikes by workers in vital sectors of the Nigerian economy.
At a meeting with the permanent secretary and directors of the Federal Ministry of Labour, the president said he was particularly disturbed by the seemingly endless strikes in Nigeria’s health sector, which had contributed to the fall in the standard of health services available in the country.
He directed the permanent secretary, Clement Illoh, and directors in the Ministry of Labour to liaise with other stakeholders to quickly work out proposals for ending the recurring strikes in the health, education, transport, oil and gas, power and other critical sectors of the national economy.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who was also at the meeting, urged Illoh and his staff to make an input to ongoing plans for the extension of welfare services to poor and disabled persons in the country.
Illoh had earlier attributed some of the recurrent strikes in the country to the inclination of some government officials to enter into agreements with financial implications without carrying the ministries of finance and labour along.
He said the Ministry of Labour had now introduced a Code of Conduct for government negotiators barring them from entering into agreements with financial implications without the consent of the president.
Illoh told journalists at the Presidential Villa after the meeting, that strikes were normal but needed to be properly managed by diagnosing the causal factors.
