Stories by Moses John Abuja
General Secretary, Textile and Garment Workers Union, Comrade Issa Aremu, has said that what the country needs “urgently is political economic transformation and (indeed revolution) rooted in value addition, massive industrialisation, equal wealth distribution, poverty eradication, mass and full employment, and productivity and not restructuring been advocated in some quarters. Comrade Aremu who spoke recently at an interactive economic session organised by Central Bank of Nigeria, in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, warned that Nigeria was fast degenerating into what he called “…a perpetual debating society like the ancient Athenian societies instead of modern 21st productive economies such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa”.
He said the current debate on restructuring is “diversionary” as it prevents genuine and legitimate attempts at holding the elected offi cials accountable for the mandate freely given to them, on their electoral promises of uninterrupted power supply, job creation, fi ght against corruption and poverty alleviation. Th e labour leader also admonished those calling for restructuring to seek election in 2019 over the issue, instead of diverting attention from an objective assessment of the current elected government at all levels. On monetary polices, he commended the CBN under Mr. Godwin Emefi ele for “the interventionist eff orts” which he observed, had stabilised the exchange rate to ensure macroeconomic stability. According to him, it was remarkable that CBN’s interventionist measures had closed the wide gap between the offi cial and the so-called black market rates of the Naira at N350 as against N500 which he alleged those who favoured massive devaluation preferred.
He, therefore, urged the CBN to continue the policies which he said, had led to progressive appreciation of the Naira. According to him, a developing economy like Nigeria needs creative monetary policies that refl ect its needs and challenges such as “Investors’ & Exporters’ FX Window” that have stimulated domestic production, putting a stop to factory closures and creating new jobs.
Th e labour leader however said the monetary policies of the CBN must be complimented by fi scal and industrial policies to “reinvent Nigerian economy” adding that “what Nigeria needs is not unhelpful debates over the so-called restructuring by the same corrupt cakesharing elite”. While observing that Federal government has commendably shown great commitment to revamp the economy through the successful launch of its economic recovery and growth plan, Aremu noted that Nigeria needed a bold development agenda and long term vision like Kenya, China, Rwanda, saying a vision of development for Nigeria in the next 50 years ‘should be the basis of political parties manifestos”. On the non-improvement in electricity supply in the past 30 years, Aremu said, “there can be no industry without electricity,” stressing that it was time to put an end to the “present criminal anti-development repeated power/energy failure.”
Th e labour leader also observed that there can be no recovery or development for Nigeria “without well-paid motivated working class”, adding that despite the apex bank’s eff orts to stabilise Naira, at the current Naira rate to dollar, “minimum wage and minimum pension had collapsed”. He ,therefore, called on the Federal government to immediately constitute the national minimum wage committee to increase both the existing minimum wage and minimum pension
