In the letter dated 14th April, 2020, but made available to National Record on Wednesday, Comrade Wabba intimated the SGF on three core focal areas of Labour-Civil Society Program of Action on Covid-19.
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“As in a war situation, our collective survival is at stake. This demands that all well-meaning groups in society join forces to fight the common threat that faces our entire continent. All groups that claim to represent people in various ways and all persons who lay claim to leadership at any level are duty bound to stand up in this time of crisis to be counted and to live up to their responsibilities of leadership,” says Comrade Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, the General secretary of ITUC-Africa, who signed the letter.
“While the Nigeria Labour Congress applauds the goodwill by the IMF and World Bank, we wish to express our displeasure that Nigeria was excluded from the list of benefitting countries announced by IMF. We call for the inclusion of Nigeria in the beneficiary list for the Covid-19 related debt relief and debt moratorium based on very cogent reasons.”
“We must leave no one behind in the response, and build universal social protection including floors, and universal health coverage. Income support must be expanded to meet the rising unemployment, with no barriers to access for informal and non-standard workers. This is the moment for necessary ambition, with no time for piecemeal solutions or programmes that exclude the needy with narrow targeting and shift risks onto workers alone.”
“While we focus on the victory ahead, we must also reflect on the lessons that the sobriety enforced by the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting global lockdown offer. These lessons are also the lessons of Easter. Easter reminds us of God’s love for the whole world. Covid-19 reminds us of a shared humanity. We are in this together. Covid-19 reminds us that what touches the nose would soon touch the eyes. Rich countries, poor climes, developed economies, struggling societies, workers, owners of capital, politicians, peasants, aristocrats, artisans, are all affected by this global pandemic that fears neither class nor status.”
“But in all this, we need to sit down, we need to rethink. I think organised labour must sit up and decide how to engage the employers in order to mitigate the impact of this crisis. They must use the existing collective agreement to ensure that workers are paid”
The speaker of Benue State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Titus Uba has stressed the need for unity of purpose…