The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has decried the rate of insecurity, woeful state of economy, poor infrastructure and unemployment in the country.
The President of the labour union, Comrade Ayuba Wabba disclosed that there was need for the government to address the high rate of unemployment, poverty, insecurity, power generation and incentives to enable both public and private industries to thrive.
The nation is in a dire strait, a development he said has put undue pressure on the citizens, he said.
It was gathered from The Nation that, “Wabba regretted that many manufacturing firms that heralded Nigeria’s independence and provided decent jobs till 1980s had closed down.
“The concerns of the workers were like that of any other Nigerian, ranging from poverty, unemployment, injustice, inequality, lack of adequate security and poor welfare.
“Today, we can count industries that are still standing. Therefore, we must create an opportunity for those industries to thrive; we must provide incentives to them. If the cost of power is still high, they cannot compete, most of them will close down. If they have to substitute the power rate with their generators, the cost of production will be high and many of them have cried out.
“So, we have to look at this issue of power, dedicate power to manufacturers, give incentives so that those companies can come in and then, our country will prosper. Without these, then we are sitting on a time bomb.
“Anywhere in the world, where you have a youthful population (18-35 years), they are the majority of the population. So, we must cater for them to have a prosperous nation with peace, stability and development.
“Without peace, there cannot be development. So, those are the critical issues. We must find ways of creating jobs for the millions of youths and other Nigerians,” he said.