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By Nasir Kura
Apparently irked by their endless threats, President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday called on labour unions and associations in the country to allow his administration concentrate on fixing infrastructure in the country rather than distracting it.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria are planning a nationwide strike on the implementation of a new minimum wage for workers while the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on industrial action for three months.
Speaking when he hosted executive committee of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) at the State House Abuja, the President assured labour leaders that he means well for Nigerians and indeed, workers, and should be allowed to fix infrastructure so that more Nigerians could be taken out of the poverty cycle.
“I am totally loyal to this country. Whatever I do is in the interest of the ordinary people especially those who do not have the benefit of being educated like you, and are just trusting whoever is leading them,” he said.
While calling on the students to continue to plead with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the President assured that he would speak with the lecturers’ body “so that they don’t encroach on your efforts to qualify in time.”
The President said he had explained in details while presenting the 2019 budget estimates, the earnings and expenditure and therefore expected the elite to understand the position of the government on certain issues, adding that it is the responsibility of the government to look after the employed as well as the unemployed.
The President said having been in positions of leadership at various stages in life, and with the experience, he is in a good position to reposition the country for the betterment of the citizens.
He said the federal government has done a lot in various sectors of the nation’s economy to make life meaningful and worth living for Nigerians.
“In three and a half years, we have improved tremendously on what we met. We are trying to do infrastructure. No matter which part of the country you come from, you will see the efforts we are making in terms of roads; we are trying to fix rails, we are trying to do power, through the use of gas and solar. If you note what we have done in these three and a half years, you will not regret voting this administration into power,” he said.
He said the country was doing very well in agriculture and was about to attain food sufficiency and security.
The President urged the youths to start preparing themselves to lead the country, and stressing that “there is a tendency for you to think that you can do better than anybody, but it is very good for you to know the facts that leadership entails.”
He also expressed gratitude to the students for appreciating some of the things his administration has been able to put in place and called on them to mobilise support for government, as it strives to make Nigeria a better place.
In his remarks, the students, led by NANS president, Comrade Danielson Bamidele Akpan, commended the federal government for the transformation of the transportation sector and the decimation of terrorists in the Northeast.
They also urged the federal government to intervene in the incessant strikes in the education sector, involve more youths in governance, and look into the plight of students in different institutions who have been expelled for ‘political’ reasons.
