FG urged to use retrieved funds from corrupt politicians to create jobs
Stakeholders in the labour sector have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to set aside a portion of the funds being retrieved from corrupt politicians and public officers for job creation in order to narrow the unemployment gap in the country.
They also urged the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its affiliates to work towards a strategy of jobs protection, as a shield against politicians’ quest for retrenchment in the public sector.
They expressed these views at a recent retreat of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Calabar, Cross River State.
The NLC leadership at the retreat resolved to review and fine tune its position presented to the 2009 Tripartite National Employment Summit which the federal government organized with technical support from the International Labour Organization.
A communiqué signed by the NLC’s President, Comrade Ayuba and his GeneralSecretary, Comrade Peter Ozo-Esson stated that the new position should take into consideration, the final Report of the Employment Summit which pledged that 4-5 million jobs would be created annually between then and 2020; and the campaign promise of the new APC government at the federal level to create three million jobs annually.
The communiqué reads: “The retreat resolved to support the determination of the current leadership of congress under Comrade Ayuba Wabba to build a firm coalition of Nigerians for good governance. In this direction, the retreat endorsed the decision of the national leadership of congress to declare September 10, 2015 as a Day of Solidarity Protest Action against the incidences of escalating corruption in our public life, as well as protest against the high cost of governance in this country.
“The retreat further resolved to call on all stakeholders in the Nigerian project to join the NLC and its allies to massively turn out on this day, and send a clear message to our political elites that Nigerians would not continue to allow very few greedy and unpatriotic members of the ruling elite to continue with the high level of corruption in our country, as well as the unsustainable high cost of governance, with a huge amount of our earnings going to pay the wages and allowances of political office holders, to the detriment of developmental projects, and developmental aspirations of the vast majority of our citizens.”
Participants at the retreat noted that the congress and its affiliates must embark on rigorous political education programmes to inculcate working class values, morality and vision of the world in activists who are entering the labour movement and those who have taken up leadership positions.