Senate: Strikes not leading to better welfare

The incessant strikes being embarked upon by Nigerian workers in different sectors of the economy is not leading to better welfare, a Senate panel said yesterday.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, Senator Suleiman Nazif (APC, Bauchi) said the strikes were negatively affecting the country’s economy.

“Our attention has been drawn to the incessant strikes embarked upon by Nigerian workers in different sectors of the economy, and still other groups are warming up to join the strike.

“We strongly believe in dialogue towards resolving workers problems and agitations; we believe that Nigerian workers, no doubt, deserve better conditions of service in terms of better salaries and welfare benefits, these can be achieved certainly not through strikes but through dialogue.

“It is indeed ironical and unfortunate that Nigerians are clamouring for positive changes in the economy and at the same time embarking on strikes in almost all the critical sectors of the economy, leading to devastating effects on the economy,” the senator said in a statement.

He said with strikes, the nation was making one step forward, and three steps backward.

Senator Nazif urged Nigerian workers to be patient, focused and more patriotic at all times, “so that