Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State says factionalisation in the labour movement is an ill wind that will not blow anyone any good.
Fashola at the 2015 Workers’ Day celebration held at the Onikan Stadium, Friday, said the situation in the country called for sacrifice by the workers if only to strengthen the unions and put in sound position to pursue their goal.
Citing the example of the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a strong political party, he said it was a result of the sacrifice of the leaders of the various parties that merged to form the new party which surrendered their names.
It would be recalled that ACN, CPC, ANPP and a faction of APGA merged to form APC.
“You know why this is important is that we must stop having factions in labour, the welfare of the workers must be bigger than political ambition of the member.
“A divided labour is a fragile labour. The new government coming in from the state and national level need a united and strong labour not a divided labour force that cannot deliver on its aspiration. So whatever it takes all of you the leaders must reach out and compromise and you must have one united labour.”
Joe Ajaero, president of the faction of the NLC, who addressed workers in front of the national stadium, Surulere, after being barred by the police from accessing the stadium with thousands of workers, said the NLC would be placing before the in-coming government of Buhari, a demand of N90,000 as minimum wage later this year.
Speaking on petroleum industry, Ajaero said the sudden emergence of long queues at fuel stations in major cities as a result of insufficient supply of petroleum products across the country was worrisome. This, he added, was further compounded by the recent release of the audit report into the account of NNPC which revealed deep rooted mismanagement, maladministration, wastages and corruption in the petroleum industry.
“To demonstrate the lack of political will of successive governments, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which is expected to bring into the sector the much anticipated reforms that will make the oil industry yield the maximum returns to the country, investors and general further investments in the oil and gas sector is yet to be passed since year 2000. We, therefore, call on the new government to commence the reform of the oil and gas sector with the immediate passage of the PIB.”
On revival of textile industry, Ajaero said, “The president-elect has commendably made revival of textile and garment industry as part of his party’s overall strategy to re-industrialise the country and create mass employment for the millions of unemployed. The new administration is right to reinvent this sector which has propelled newly industrialised countries in recent times such as China, India, Balgadesh and Indonesia, among others.”
“Nigeria boasts of a large polyester base. Combined with the 170 million population rich in fashion and clothing and huge labour force of some 70 million potential workers, Nigeria has the potential of producing 1.2 billion meters of cloths per annum and create at least 3 million direct jobs in textile sector! The president-elect must realise that past presidents including Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan made similar pledges to revive textiles with innovative policies which include import bans and intervention fund.
“Key problems facing the textile industry in particular and manufacturing industries in general are infrastructural inadequacy, raw materials, electricity supply, smuggling, counterfeiting and faking, among others. All these problems call for strong government interventions not less,” he said.
