NECA, CSOs want NLC to spearhead entrenchment of good governance
NAN-H-118
Governance
By Bukola Olaifa/Joan Nwagwu
Abuja, Feb. 27, 2018(NAN)The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and other civil society groups have urged Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to chart a new course for workers to partake in good governance.
The groups made the call on the occasion of NLC @ 40 holding at International Conference Centre in Abuja on Tuesday with the theme: “ Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, National Unity and Social Justice ”
Speaking at the event, the Director-General of NECA Mr Segun Oshinowo, urged the NLC to maintain its current status as a mass movement capable of making relevant contributions towards sustainable national development.
“NLC must know that there is a difference between being political and being politically naive.
“ In this next dispensation there should be no room for political naivetes because the quality of lives of workers goes beyond what any single employer can determine,” he said.
He explained that the role of NLC in ensuring good governance at all the three tiers of government is now assured now more than the previous 40 years of its existence.
According to Oshinowo, it is the NLC’s responsibility to ensure delivery good governance to the people by the government.
Contributing, Mr Biodun Aremu, the President of the Joint Action Front (JAF), said NLC must endeavour to champion prudence in the management of public funds, adding that the days of wastage in governance were over.
Aremu argued that nothing good had ever happened to the Nigeria workers on the platter of gold, stressing that the NLC must not relent in its struggle for the general welfare of the working class.
According him, the announcement of the minimum wage, which is to take effect from September was done because the general elections are fast approaching.
“ But we know our minimum wage would be gotten through our struggles and we must be prepared to go for it,” he said.
He said within the 40 years of NLC’s existence, it had seen the good, the bad and the ugly, but added that the battle was far from being over; “we must continue to fight.”
According to him, it was time that NLC demonstrated a lot of seriousness in actualising its mandate for the good and wellbeing
of the workers in the country.
“NLC must wake up to do the right thing, go back to the drawing board and start what was begun 40 years ago,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Jaiye Gaskiya, Co-Convener, Say NO Campaign, said there was no way NLC could build a favourable wall around the workers if the congress fails to get involved in politics as a mass movement.
“We must reflect on why Africa is where we are today and we must return to the centre to take back our continent.
“Some of us want a labour movement that is not just political but that will participate fully, otherwise nobody is going to do it for us,” he said.
According to him, the Nigeria Labour movement as a centre of global attention must return to the centre stage in order to reclaim our humanity, our citizenship and take back our country in the interest of the people. (NAN).
BOL/JAN/OSA
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Edited by Shittu Obassa/Felix Ajide