The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the Federal Government to ensure those who looted funds meant for subsidising petrol are punished this year.
It also urged the government to curb the rising unemployment in the country.
In a statement by its president, Abdulwahed Omar, labour said it would not augur well for the citizenry for unemployment to continue to increase.
The NLC said: “Government will be unfair to the Nigerian people if they fail to expeditiously prosecute those who have stolen so much, and caused so much trauma and death to the people. We hold the view that no one is above the law in any decent society and if our government is committed to the enthronement of good governance and a corrupt-free society, they must get the named beneficiaries of the oil subsidy scam to not only refund all the money they have stolen, but also serve appropriate jail terms. This, will be the only acceptable condition for continuous industrial harmony by workers and the Nigerian people.”
It said the claim of economic growth by the government has not translated to improvement in the lives of Nigerians.
The statement reads: “On behalf of Nigerian workers, it is our pleasure to welcome Nigerians to the year 2013. As a New Year, we believe that it holds new hopes and aspirations for the Nigerian nation. However, given the disturbing trend in the economy and governance in the past year, which were characterised by incessant job losses and unemployment, insecurity, and corruption, as well as unparalleled impunity, the sustenance of good governance would require re-srategising and more commitment to a peoples-focused and oriented policy thrust in the interest of the Nigerian poor.
“To workers and the Nigerian people, it would entail a demand, ever than before, our collective will of struggle and patriotism, to check this apparent drift in the affairs of state in the interest of working families and the Nigerian people.
“The economy, during the year 2012, was characterised by a number of maladies, with dire consequences for workers and the Nigerian people. In particular, the crisis of unemployment continues to be the greatest of these. Official statistics puts the unemployment rate at above 24 percent. As alarming as this would seem, it actually disguises the enormity of the unemployment problem given the huge pool of disguised unemployment and underemployment. The incidence of unemployment among the youths is even more alarming. Though official figures indicate over 40 percent of them as unemployed, the reality is that about 60% of youths remain unemployed. On average, graduates of the nation’s universities and polytechnics continue to remain unemployed four years after discharge from the mandatory NYSC scheme. Other categories of less qualified youths have been roaming the streets in millions without gainful employment. Thus, resigning to a life of perpetual destitution and despondency in a country blessed with so much resources and potentials.
“The underlying inflation in the economy has also continued to erode the purchasing power of workers’ incomes, making the N18,000 Minimum Wage largely a poverty wage. Aggregate inflation, which officially stands at 11.7 percent in the third quarter of the year, might be misleading as the fuel price hike in January, the increase in electricity tariffs and the floods in the third quarter of the year that have been major culprits driving inflation, have largely disempowered working families.
“Consequent upon the above, poverty remains endemic as increasing numbers of families and households are unable to meet their basic needs. To compound this situation, thousands of families displaced by the massive floods in various parts of the country continue to live in refugee camps awaiting resettlement.
“This abysmal economic outlook is prevailing in the face of official aggregate of the economy touted to experience respectable growth. The growth rate of GDP is flaunted to average about 6.5 percent based on data for the first three quarters of the year. While this is lower than the corresponding rate for 2011, it is way above the global growth rates for comparable national economies.
“However, our concern about this respectable economic growth is that it does not translate into industrial development and better life for the Nigerian people. The economy continues to experience incessant factory closures, and with no visible industrial policy, has led to continuous informalisation of work and de-industrialisation, unemployment has continued unabated, and hyper-inflationary pressure, which has been most severe in the food, energy and transport sub sectors have impoverished majority of Nigerians.
“Rather than throw up figures, which the World Bank has recently alleged are largely obsolete in Africa, the challenge should be to promote employment generating growth so as to break away from the malady of jobless growth.”
