Workers in the food sector have urged Nigerians to believe in a better future.
President, National Union of Food Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE), Lateef Oyelekan, stated this during the investiture and awards organised for the leadership of the union by the Centre for Ethics and Self- Value Orientation in Lagos.
He said there was hope for the country despite its challenges.
“There’s hope for this country. We only need to change our orientation and ideology. I believe that, if we can all work as a team, we would change the story of this country for good,” he said.
Oyelekan said the union has over 180 staff and that after the completion of its hotel in Ibadan, its staff would jump to over 250.
He noted that more jobs could be created not only through the Organised Private Sectors (OPS), but also government agencies, most especially at the local level must also do whatever they could to change the story of unemployment.
He said: “More jobs can be created through the local governments. I believe that if each of the 774,000 can employ over 10,000, that will greatly reduce unemployment and youth restiveness. Definitely we all know that an idle hand is a devil’s workshop.”
On the awards and investiture, which was based on the track record of the union and exemplary leadership, Oyelekan said the union never knew its actions were being monitored by any outside organisation.
“We never knew that what we were doing were being observed by anybody outside. Our executive work, together as a team, have recorded the success you have noticed. What this recognition will do, is to charge us to do more and we would like to encourage you to further spread your tentacles to the grassroots to salvage the country from further destruction,” he said.
The Executive Director, Centre for Ethics and Self Value Orientation, Musa Yakubu, said the organisation’s mission is to serve as a whistle blower and fish out corrupt leaders and organisations while recognising those who have maintained high integrity in the discharge of their responsibilities.
“We are bent on changing the narratives of governance in Nigeria and will continue to look out for criminals. We are the largest single anti corruption agency and have whistleblowers all over the nation,” he stated.
He explained that the organisation never had any interaction with the leadership of NUFBTE until the day of the investiture when it came to the union’s secretariat, but has done its due diligence and investigation as it had always done to arrive at those to be commended.
He said: “We believe that no nation can survive without virile unions, but we are in an era when some union leaders have gone morally bankrupt, when some have compromised.
“Nigeria supposed to have been a developed nation as projected by our forefathers, but corrupt leaders have continued to hold the nation down. Records showed that we’ve lost over $400 billion to corruption. We are going after them, we will not rest on our oars until we chased all those corrupt leaders out of governance.
“We are country that celebrates hypocrisy, royal fathers are also culpable, given titles to criminals.”
The legal representative of the union also spoke on the awards, saying that it was not misguided as the Presidency had investigated the union’s account and thereafter visited the union’s projects and threw away the petition that led to the inquiry.
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