*Says thing are now falling in place

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

KADUNA—ORGANISED Labour yesterday in Kaduna State, said since inauguration on May 29th, President Muhammadu Buhari had made some significant moves in the direction of good governance in the areas of anti-corruption, security and economy.

Speaking through a Deputy President of the Joe Ajaero faction of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Mr. Issa Aremu, Labour contended that things were falling in place in the country.

According to him, “first labour commends federal government resolve under President Buhari to prosecute those who allegedly stole national resources soonest. More than ever before, President Muhammadu Buhari is naming, shaming and damning corruption. Not long ago former President Jonathan was being unhelpfully academic with corruption saying among others that stealing is not corruption. Labour agrees with President Buhari that Nigeria has to break this “vicious cycle” of corruption  unemployment and insecurity in Nigeria before we can make progress. All Nigerians are therefore enjoined to support the government in this war against graft, which is the root of all woes including senseless violence engendered by poverty.

“Beyond recovering the stolen funds stashed in foreign banks and prosecuting the culprits, we need institutional framework to prevent grafts and public theft. To this extent we commend the Presidential directive on a Single Treasury Account, STA, for all Federal revenues to ensure greater probity, transparency and accountability in the collection, disbursement and utilization of national funds. Commercial Banks must create money beyond recycling public funds for corruption.

President Muhammadu Buhari

We also commend the work of the National Economic Council, NEC, bi-partisan Adhoc Committee on the Management of Excess Crude Account Proceeds and Accruals into the Federation Account, headed by the Governor of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole.    Other members of the committee included Governors Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom.

On security, Aremu said “we commend the President for resisting the pressure to remove subsidy on petroleum products. The President should rather deal with the problem which is corruption in subsidy management. We should not throw away the baby with bad water; accept the baby and throw away the bad water. There is nothing inherently bad with subsidy, what is bad is subsidy mismanagement. President Buhari has shown that there is no substitute for good governance. We must encourage him. We also commend the President’s effort to fix the refineries.

Continuing, he also commended President Buhari on bailout arrangement for states to settle arrears of salaries, notable sense of sacrifices to cut cost of governance, effort to bring back National Carrier among others.

Aremu, who is also the General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, lamented however that things were still falling apart especially regarding the value of the Naira, closure of factories (which is the future of industrialisation), absentee legislators among others, but insisted that ”President Buhari has so far avoided the haste and recklessness in arriving at the critical decisions. However the administration must not delay decisions and policy actions when the time is ripe and opportune.”