Labour predicts worse days without good economic policies

By Gloria Nwafor

 The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has said the nation should expect worse days in the New Year if the Federal Government does not initiate and implement good economic policies for growth and job creation.

 
The union in its New Year message said the present administration had forgotten the promised ‘change mantra’ to the populace, stating that the unemployment rate had tripled since government came into power in 2015.
 
President of TUC and Secretary General, Quadri Olaleye and Musa-Lawal Ozigi, respectively, maintained that Nigeria’s job crisis is caused by perennial under funding of some critical sectors, especially the education sector.
 
They queried that government had not shown any prudence and responsibility in the dubbed 2021 budget tagged, “Budget of Economic Recovery and Resilience”.
 

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They noted that Nigeria is everyone’s business and all must unite to make it work.
 
On Nigeria’s debt profile, which stood at N31.01 trillion as released by Debt Management Office (DMO) in June 2020, the workers said that in saner climes, where true patriots are in government, the proper thing for government to do was to cut down on cost of governance.
 
The union lamented the sum of N540 billion budgeted to purchase Coronavirus vaccine in the 2021 national budget at a time when the nation’s infrastructure, healthcare facilities and education are gasping for breath. 
 
“Inflation rate oscillates between 14.89 and 15.0 percent, the unemployment rate and insecurity are all time high. Needless mention the high cost of governance and the “Nigerian factor” that is embedded in every contract they award.
 
“Why should the state house earmarked N66.6m for the payment of Aso Rock rent, N45m for sewage charges, N116m for vehicle tyres, N436m was earmarked for replacement of vehicles and spare parts and N67m for fuel? Despite making N10m provision for Giant HD copier, the State House would still spend N46m and another N22m for printing of non security and security documents respectively. You will recall that not too long ago it was in the news that the Petroleum Ministry spent over N113m for the purchase of Schneider pens, Yet they dubbed the 2021 budget

“Budget of Economic Recovery and Resilience”. This does not show prudence and responsibility.
Nigeria is our business and we must make it work. 
 
“To escape the club of houseboys’ roles we must stop accepting anything foreign as better and superior to ours? One of the lessons learned during the First World War was that the white people are not God. The Covid-19 has further shown that white people do not have solutions to all problems. The Congress expects that in 2021 the leadership must be patriotic enough to look inward and also stop taking away our resources to the land of our oppressors,” the statement added.