LABOUR DEMANDS BIPARTISAN APPROACH TO NATION'S SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

Organised Labour yesterday in Benin City, Edo State, called on all Nigerians to join hands in finding solutions to the rising inflation, double digit interest rates, factory closures and general underdevelopment of the
country. Speaking through the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, Labour insisted that Nigerians must have a bipartisan approach to the current economic crisis, saying, “We must therefore collectively confront under-development instead of giving excuses and blaming one another” General Secretary of NUTGTWN, Comrade Issa Aremu, at the union’s 28th National Education conference titled, LABOUR AND INDUSTRY: BACK TO BASICS IN THE ERA OF CHANGE, noted that, “After 30 years of structural adjustment programme of privatization, trade liberalization and currency/financial liberalization, Nigeria urgently must replace the current disjointed policies with sustainable national development agenda consolidated in various national discourses articulated in vision 2010, 2020 and 2014 National conference.


 President Buhari through the national Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPPS, kuru, Jos must consolidate all these patriotic national economic policies for immediate implementation as opposed to prescribed IMF/World bank prescriptions of the last 30 years of “growth” without development. The National Planning Commission must be replaced by Federal Ministry of Planning to ensure implementation of all the policy recommendations.

“Nigeria needs monetary and fiscal policies to drive sustainable development. Organized labour hails the current spirited efforts of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele to defend the naira value through stringent capital control measures in the face of dwindling external reserves caused by the collapse of oil price. The CBN had issued a directive stopping some 41imported goods and services from the list of items valid for forex in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Markets. Those who import these items can no longer buy foreign currency from the official window to pay the overseas suppliers.


We support the resolve of the CBN to finance production inputs not conspicuous consumption items. The IMF has been advocating capital account convertibility as a key financial policy for developing countries and has been against adoption of capital controls, even in times of financial stress and crisis.


Capital controls are not a new measure, but have been used by most countries until recently, and many nations still have them. During the Asian crisis of the 90s, countries like Malaysia creatively used capital control to protect themselves against international financial instability. Control on capital flows are good as part of macroeconomic management. Capital controls are not “anti-market.” But if the CBN has done its side of capital control, it is now left for the financial authorities to swing into actions with complementary fiscal measures and policies for economic recovery.”