The organized labor announced on Tuesday that it would support Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s candidate for president in the 2023 elections.
The two labor union apex bodies, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), reaffirmed their support for the campaign and their determination to use every legal means to achieve the victory of the Labour Party presidential candidate.
In a separate speech delivered by their Presidents at the 10th anniversary lecture in Abuja in memory of the late Conrade Pascal Bayau, a labor veteran, they expressed their support.
The NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said during his speech that Mr. Obi is among the best Nigerians and the first Labour Party presidential candidate to be accepted by the labor Center.
On the other hand, he affirmed NLC support for the Labour Party’s nominee, Peter Obi.
He declared that the NLC will organize wholeheartedly to achieve the party’s victory in the general elections in 2023.
Wabba noted that after the union realized strikes and protests alone could not change the narratives in Nigeria, especially as it concerns workers’ welfare and fair treatment to the working people, it became imperative for organized labor to fully participate in campaigning to ensure that the candidate whose mantra will make life better for his members and Nigerians at large wins the election.
For his part, TUC President Comrade Quadri Olaleye stated that all labor unions are happy to work with Peter Obi and are prepared to do so. He also stated that the entire labor movement has accepted, adopted, and will support Obi and will work to ensure that workers support him in the most significant way possible during the 2023 presidential elections.
He emphasized that every family in Nigeria has a worker and, in most cases, members of the TUC or NLC while portraying the party as having a strong and extensive structure.
The Labour Party, he stressed, is the only party that represents Nigerian workers.
In his speech, Mr. Peter Obi stated that his visit to the heads of the two labor centers was merely a courtesy trip to show respect for the Organized Labour, on whose behalf and behalf of which he hopes Nigerians will cast their ballots in the general elections of 2023.
“My commitment is to shift Nigeria from consumption to production, and you can’t talk about production without labor,” he said.
Labor drives production; capital and machinery are capable of anything, but labor is what makes it all happen.
The greatest contributor to output is labor, hence it needs to be well compensated.
“I don’t need to remind you of how dire the situation is in our nation right now.
If you work in Nigeria today, you will spend your whole salary on food.
So many people don’t even know where they will get their next meal.
They spend money on their children’s education, but when they graduate, they stay at home and do nothing.
“We need to talk about these topics.
No one may hold the office of president in Nigeria without first consulting the labor union about the country’s future.
“The situation where the leaders are here and the workers are there cannot continue.
They must converse while seated at the same table.
That is the start of the solution, and that is what is taking place everywhere.
Nigeria is not a nation that produces.
Bad leadership is the result of our current problems as a whole.
Our leadership places a strong emphasis on sharing.
Therefore, you must switch from the sharing formula to the production formula.
“On 923,000 square kilometers of territory, 200 million people live in this nation.
They are unable to export anything and cannot even feed themselves.
With a population of 200 million, Nigeria’s total exports, including oil, are less than $2 billion.
Vetnam, a comparable nation that is not in the first world and that had the same tragedy as Nigeria in 2000, has 100 million people, a population that is half that of Nigeria, and occupies 331,000 square kilometers of land. Their total income last year was $312 billion.
He said that more than half of the nation’s young people who are of working age are unemployed.
The Labour Party wants to have a conversation about this for the sake of our nation’s future.
Added, He continued by saying that since other nations are also borrowing to assist their economic development efforts, borrowing is not the nation’s concern.
However, he asserted that if you borrow for production rather than consumption, you will advance.
