May Day: Jonathan warns Labour to check corruption among its members •Nigeria’s unity under threat - Labour

NIGERIAN workers, on Wednesday, expressed fears over the insecurity situation in the country, lamenting that “the country is facing severe, comprehensive and total security challenges that threatened its existence.”
Delivering his May Day speech at the Eagles Square, Abuja, where President Goodluck Jonathan was present, president of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, said the insecurity situation in the country was taking its toll in every facet of the nation.
While Omar lamented that “the bonds that hold us together are being weakened,” the president of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Comrade Peter Esele, in his May Day massage, said the “Boko Haram insurgency and the renewed violence by some militants in the Niger Delta appear to have overwhelmed the government’s security apparatus.”
Describing the situation as “a clear danger,” Omar warned that the it required urgent solution if Nigeria must remain as one country.
While calling on the government to address the issue of unemployment, the labour unions also charged the president to ensure the issue of power generation was tackled and addressed.
In his speech at the rally, President Jonathan advised the organised labour to do more to tackle corruption among their members, since some of the perpetrators being prosecuted in the country were from within their ranks.
He assured of the commitment of the government to fight the vice in all fronts and noted labour’s demand for more action on the part of his administration.
The president noted that since the advent of his administration, its actions and policies had been geared towards placing the country on the path of sustainable progress, where everyone could better achieve his or her dream.
“The transformation agenda is about taking and implementing measures today in order to give our people a brighter tomorrow. It is about creating jobs, creating wealth and ensuring  better deal for Nigerians. This is an onerous task and requires the support of all citizens of this great country,” he said.
In a message to the workers, Senate President, David Mark, enjoined Nigerian workers to make production the cornerstone of their engagement, in order to boost the economy and bring prosperity to the nation.
He said only a productive nation was capable of feeding its citizens, raise per capital income and maintain acceptable standard of living for the people.
Senator Mark reminded workers that a consuming nation without a corresponding productive sector was unhealthy in today’s world.
He also commented on the penchant by workers to resort to strike against disagreement with authorities, saying that resort to strike was counterproductive.
Mark, therefore, pleaded with labour to de-emphasise strike and engage the authorities on strategic dialogue and negotiation.
In Oyo State, it was jubilation galore as Governor Abiola Ajimobi announced the raising of the bar for graduate teachers in public schools from Grade Level 14.
The state wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) had, at a recent meeting with government, appealed for the raising of bar for teachers who were university graduates.
But Governor Ajimobi, while addressing the workers, said the bar had been removed and that it would take effect from May 1, 2013.
“Teachers, particularly the graduate among them, had had promotion pegged at Grade Level 14. But, effective from today, May 1, we have removed the stagnation bar and they can now move above Level 14 by writing promotion examinations,” he said.
The governor also promised that his administration would provide low cost housing for workers in the state through the construction of workers’ estate.
Ajimobi, who was the first governor to attend the May Day rally since 2006, also promised that the state government would provide free transportation for the people of the state for a week, after which government would be charging minimum and bearable fares.
In Osun,  Governor Rauf Aregbesola said Nigerian workers are viable instruments for the implementation of government’s policies and programmes, saying that without them, no governmental institution can function effectively.
Aregbesola, while addressing workers, said “our conviction that the achievement of these lofty objectives requires efficient workforce informs the quality attention we accord human capacity development.
“Without workers, there can be no government. While it is possible in an efficient and well primed system for government to function without the political functionaries, it is inconceivable that any government can function without workers. In actual fact, workers are the greatest asset of any government.”
According to the governor, current salaries and allowances in the state had risen from about N1.3 billion in October 2010 to over N2 billion in April 2013.
Bauchi State governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda, in Bauchi, on Wednesday, said the history of Nigeria is incomplete without mentioning the prominent roles played by labour leaders during its evolution.
This is even as he urged labour movement in the country to return to the primary principles of commitment, equity, justice and service to the fatherland, upon which earlier labour movements were founded.
Represented by his deputy, Alhaji Sagir Aminu Saleh, the governor noted that pioneer labour veterans struggled with Nigerian nationalist leaders to actualise the dream of attaining Independence from the colonialists.
Governor Yuguda said his administration did not only implement the N18,000 minimum wage but also implemented all federal salary structures, purchased utility vehicles for ministries, departments and agencies, cars and motorcycles for civil servants on loan at 50 and 20 per cent subsidised rates respectively.
He, however, called on workers in the state to reciprocate the good gestures “through complete loyalty and dedication to service.”
Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero of Kaduna State, while addressing workers at the Township Stadium, Kaduna, on Wednesday, said his administration had placed the welfare of workers in the state as a top priority.
He said in a resolve to improve the welfare of workers, the state government had already allocated new houses for civil servants in the state.
Represented by his deputy, Ambassador Nuhu Bajoga, the governor said at the moment, the new two-bedroom and three-bedroom semi detached and detached houses, located at the housing estates in Zaria, Kafanchan and Kaduna Millennium City, were being allocated to benefiting civil servants.
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State urged civil servants to always toe the path of dialogue at any given time,
While speaking at the May Day rally at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos, Fashola said “if we work together, we will gain a lot, but if you embark on strike, the state will go backward.”
He disclosed that the level of poverty in the state had reduced drastically, based on the statistics at his disposal, saying that the rate had reduced from 57 per cent to 23 per cent.
Tribune