Buhari’s Independence speech: Labour demands concrete plans
…Says target easy to set, tough to implement
By Bimbola Oyesola
Nigeria’s organised Labour centres have picked holes in the the Federal Government plan to add 10,000 megawatts to the nation’s electricity grid by 2020 in addition to creating 10,000 jobs, describing it as mere wishful thinking. Labour said there are no concrete plans on ground to achieve the targets.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in a separate interviews with Daily Sun said the target would have been feasible if there was the political will by the present administration to attain the goals.
The General Secretary of the NLC, Peter Ozo-Eson, said targets can be easily set, but the situation on ground, particularly in respect of adding 10,000 megawatts to the electricity grid may be a fluke at the end of the deadline since economic realities on ground can’t make this achievable.
“The situation on ground after bungling of the privatisation programme shows that it is not feasible. Even in terms of generation, the Discos cannot distribute all the powers generated. Setting targets without addressing the fundamentals will get us no where”, he said.
On the job creation, the labour leaders urged the Federal Government to tell Nigerians where the jobs would come from: “where are the jobs coming from, and what is the quality of the jobs? We want an economy that will create sustainable jobs. Nigerians are more interested in what concrete plans are on ground towards achieving these targets.”
For his part, the President General of TUC, Bobboi Bala Kaigama, expressed confidence that it could be possible if the politicians would use the funds allocated for projects to execute them.
“Politicians have habit of allocating funds, but often end up diverting or mismanaging the resources. More so, the government has to work on the Gen cos and the Discos to ensure they deliver on their mandates.”
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