Buhari tasks Tinubu on workers’ right

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday charged the incoming administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu to respect workers’ rights as enshrined in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) declarations on labour matters.

Buhari made the call at the 2023 Workers Day celebration held at Eagle Square, Abuja.

The president, who was represented at the event by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, said Nigeria as a viable Member State of the ILO and had ratified all the core conventions of the organisation, guarding and promoting rights at work.

He said: “In June 1998, a declaration was optimistically made by the ILO to establish a social minimum at the global level to respond to the realities of globalisation.

“Hence, the birth of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in 1998, and amended in 2022, as an expression by the tripartite body of the ILO-government-employers’ and workers’ organisations.

“This is to uphold basic human values regarded as vital to socio-economic lives by affirming to respect five broad categories of workers’ rights at work, embodying more than nine conventions.”

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On his part, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said the Nigerian government recognised the importance of workers and would constantly create the right environment for them to thrive.

“In the past few years, we have taken a number of measures to support Nigerian workers, which include the review and increase of the National Minimum Wage in 2019, Institutionalising its review automatically every five years in the Act.

“We have provided better working conditions and environment, invested in training and re-training, education and human capacity development for workers.

“However, we also recognise that there is a lot more work to be done to improve the lives of Nigerian workers,“ Ngige said.

The minister urged the incoming government to create a work plan for addressing challenges faced by the workers.

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