Nigeria: Organised Labour calls for wealth generation to combat poverty

By -
*Mr Issa Aremu, General Secretary, Textile Workers’ Union

(Nigeria) The Federal Government has been called upon to dissipate more energy on wealth generation rather than refuting controversial reports of the Brookings Report on the poverty level in Nigeria.
Recent Findings by the Brookings Institution, a non-profit public policy organization based in Washington, DC, America, reportedly indicated that Nigeria has overtaken India as the country with the largest number of extreme poor in early 2018 with six persons becoming poor every minute. 
But responding fielding questions from State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, argued that the indices used for the report may have been complied when Nigeria was in recession.
He advised Nigerians not to be overly worried about the report because the current administration's urgent infrastructure programmes and enabling environment for businesses will make poverty in the country disappear.
In his reaction to the controversy, Mr Issa Aremu, NEC member of NLC and General Secretary, Textile Workers’ Union said it was unhelpful agonising on poverty when what was needed was to organise and banish poverty.
According to the labour leader, Brookings Institution’ report was not fundamentally different from the findings of National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, which last year  put unemployment rate at 16.2 per cent  from 14.2 per cent in the fourth quarter 2016 with as many as 57 millions officially unemployed adding that the root cause of poverty is due to loss of incomes as a result of unemployment.
Aremu said poverty level denial must give way to sustainable policies to eradicate wants and deprivations in the midsts of abundance for few privileged rich. He said the Federal government must initiate a wholistic programme of wealth generation and wealth distribution instead of poverty reduction, adding “that  the poor know that the key to eradicating poverty is wealth creation.
“ What Nigeria needs is Wealth Creation which calls for a halt to existing de-industrialisation.
“We need sustainable job-led growth not the existing jobless growth.  Industry must be revived to generate enough goods and services.  When supply exceeds demand, price must fall.  When people work, they must earn enhanced wages enhancing their purchasing power for produced goods and services.  The poor don’t need charity.  What they need is value addiction based incomes,” he said.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UBTH @50: Obaseki hails institution’s role in strengthening Edo healthcare

By -
Image
(Nigeria) Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, has commended the staff and management of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, for their unwavering commitment, dedication, and hard work in providing high-quality healthcare services to the people of Edo State and Nigeria in the past fifty years. Obaseki, at a dinner organized in honour of the Committee of Chief Medical Directors of Nigeria, at the Government House, Benin City, reassured the government’s continuous partnership and collaboration with the federal government-owned health institution to strengthen the health system and ensure quality health delivery to Edo people. The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Philip Shaibu, reeled out the gains of the government’s reforms in the health sector, commending the medical centre for bolstering the government’s efforts at transforming Edo State into a health hub. He said, "We came into a wilderness where you have to cut a part for yourself and fix it. We held...
Read more

Osun: S'Court ruling affirmed power resides with the people - Diri

By -
Image
*Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri (Nigeria) Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has said the ruling of the country’s apex court on the Osun State governorship election was an affirmation that power in a democracy resided with the people. Governor Diri, while congratulating Senator Ademola Adeleke in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, on Wednesday, expressed joy that the Supreme Court sealed the mandate freely given to the governor by the Osun people. The Bayelsa governor also said the verdict reflected the current mood of the country where those whose stock-in-trade is to promote electoral violence and subvert the will of the people have no place in our electoral system. He expressed the hope that introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, will instil more confidence in the electoral process, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to deepen Nigeria’s democracy by also introducing electronic votin...
Read more

NBC has no powers to impose fine on broadcast stations --Court

By -
Image
(Nigeria) The National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, has been restrained by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, from imposing fines on broadcast stations in the country. Trial judge in the matter, Justice James Omotosho also set aside the N500,000 fines imposed on March 1, 2019, on each of 45 broadcast stations. The court made the orders in its judgment a suit by the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda, MRA, which had sued the NBC. Justice Omotosho held that the NBC, not being a court of law, had no power to impose sanctions as punishment on broadcast stations. The court further held that the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, which gives the commission the power to impose sanction, is in conflict with Section 6 of the Constitution that vested judicial power in the court of law. He said the court would not sit idle and watch a body imposing fine arbitrarily without recourse to the law. He said that the commission did not comply with the law when it sat as a complainant and at...
Read more