By Gift Samuel, The Sight News
Abuja-The Nigeria Labour Congress,(NLC) President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba has on Tuesday stressed that there cannot be sustainable peace in the face of unemployment as unengaged youths easily become veritable tool to cause social instability.
Wabba who disclosed this at the ITUC-Africa, Africa Trade Union Development Network (ATUDN)Steering Committee Meeting in Abuja, called on Africa Trade Unions to engage the issues of unemployment, decent work for peace and resilience, proffer solutions and also be part of the process of bringing about a positive change to achieve development..
According to him; “Within the context of development, what can we do to push our government to be able to do what is right in the interest of our citizens and also to be at the driving seat of developmental issues within our country? It is always better to prevent than trying to manage conflict so youth employment and creation of employment for our teeming youth is very important.
“I want to give you the assurance and commitment of NLC to the effect that we are committed in making sure that Africa and most importantly, Africa Trade Unions are able to take their rightful place in driving the process of development” he said.
He expressed hopes that the meeting will produce a tangible outcome that will propel trade unionists from Africa to be able to key into the process of development and also propel the governments to do what is right.
Also speaking, the Policy Adviser for ITUC Africa,Alex Nkosi noted that the objective of the meeting is to take stock of what has been done in the previous year and to evaluate their efforts to see if what was intended in the annual plan has been achieved, adding that a new work plan has been developed for the 2017/2018 project year.
Nkosi further disclosed that the ATUDN has developed its own tools in order to effectively monitor the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), stressing that it is working to ensure that all its affiliates know how to use the tool and are able to capture the data and engage the government accordingly
According to him; “ATUDN objective is to do research in development from a labour perspective and to also build a capacity of African Trade Union on issues to do with development. For a long time, Africa Trade Unions have occupied themselves with the issues of bread and butter without engaging on issues of development which have a bearing on the issue of bread and butter.
“So basically it’s trying to link the developmental discuss and how it affects the living standards of the people and also the wages that the workers get”.
He however noted that Private Public Partnerships and the blended finance has quite a negative impact on the working conditions of African Workers, adding that such cases does not allow the workers form unions or orient them to their labour right.
He said” We think that this is also a curtailment of their labour rights. We have engaged the AU on critical issues like public private partnership and financing for development and our input has also been taken note of so those are some of the gains that we have registered”.
