Labour Criticized July 7 extended Public Holiday, Calls For Selfless Leadership And Increased Productivity In Nigeria

By Lola SERIKI- IDAHOSA

As the clamour for political restructuring continues to gather momentum, Organised labour has said political restructuring is not sustainable without Socio- economic restructuring through urgent diversification of the economy as well as "revolutionary measures" to consciously bridge the worsening gap between the rich and the increasing mass of the poor Nigerians.

 In a Sallah message in Ilorin, a trade unionist, and NEC Member of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Issa Aremu while wishing Nigerians a happy Eid-el-fitri celebration hailed the multi billion Naira special social intervention projects contained in 2016 federal budget, adding that the provisions aimed at alleviating poverty among the poor were in line with the "Give-the-poor-spirit" of Ramadan and part of necessary social restructuring for the country.

 Comrade Aremu who is also the Chairman of 50 million workers IndustriALL Global Union, Africa Region, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the N500 billion social interventions in five areas, namely 500,000 teachers recruitment, 100,000 artisans, schools feeding for 5million school, conditional cash transfers to 1million poorest of the poor and education grant for 100, 000 students in science, Mathematics and Engineering among others. He also hailed the federal government for the prompt payment of monthly salaries of federal workers and called on the State governors to emulate the good example.

According to him, the month of Ramadan "legitimizes Gandhi’s observation that “there is indeed enough for everybody’s need, but not enough for everybody’s greed.” He therefore called for selfless leadership that must free scarce resources from what he calls "senseless private accumulation and corruption" to development, wealth generation, poverty alleviation and fair income distribution. The labour leader says Ramadan month has shown that "with service, balance, moderation and proportion in governance in Nigeria, many Nigerians would not go to bed hungry just as the rich would not have sleepless nights because they are over-fed with undeserved wealth".

 Comrade Aremu however commended the effort by President Buhari administration to redirect the country to the path of economic recovery and prosperity. He however frowns at what he called "casual public holidays" that create an impression of "non-working/non-productive Republic".

He criticized Thursday July 7 extended public holiday as announced by the Interior Minister to mark the Eid-el-Fitri observing that after Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday additional public holiday was one "off-day too many for a country that is far behind in the global productivity/competitiveness index".  While noting that the key to the nation’s economic recovery is increased productivity and that the antidote against poverty is work, comrade Aremu said the effort of President Buhari administration to revive domestic industries and attract foreign direct investment will be undermined if existing local industries are forced to close down for almost one week on account of religious festivity. According to him, with only 48 working hours a week, almost 120 days rest days (inclusive Saturdays and Sundays) in a year , Nigeria has the highest number of public holidays in the world compared to Malaysia, China and Indonesia which work 52 hours-7 days a week. He said it was unhelpful that both the Federal, state governments and even legislative arms impose indiscriminate public holidays that undermine production in the private sector, adding that with endless outages and assault on gas facilities by militants, Nigeria is fast becoming an unproductive country. "The real threat to our democracy is this idle capacity fed by official national shut down, called public holidays in whatever name" he lamented. He said as a labour leader, forcing worker to rest with pay seems attractive but he added that "enlightened workforce know that rest without adequate income means glorified poverty." "When we are working we are poor due to income inadequacy, is it when we are compelled to rest through frivolous holidays that we get out of poverty" he queried?