The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), has urged the Federal Government to urgently fast-track the establishment of state police, warning that the worsening insecurity across the country was threatening food production, economic activities and the wellbeing of Nigerians.

The labour centre said political concerns over the possible misuse of state police should not be allowed to frustrate a reform that would benefit the overwhelming majority of Nigerians.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, President of the TUC, Comrade Festus Osifo said the Federal Government had the political leverage to secure the passage of the proposed state police legislation through the National Assembly and should therefore demonstrate the political will to do so.

The union argued that politicians constituted less than 0.1 per cent of the Nigerian population, insisting that the interests of the remaining 99.9 per cent should not be sacrificed because of fears over political abuse of state police.

He said: “How can we, because of less than 0.1 per cent of the Nigerian population, allow 99.99 per cent to suffer? That is not logical.

“Government must do things that will impact the larger number of people. You must do good looking at the larger number of people that it is going to impact.”

Osifo also noted that the time had come for the country to move beyond debate and implement state police, particularly as insecurity continues to prevent farmers from accessing their farms and threatens food security.

TUC further challenged the Federal Government to ensure that the proposed legislation was passed without unnecessary delay, noting that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) controls both the Federal Government and has a majority in the National Assembly.

“We think that state police is ripe. We think that the time to implement state police is now.

“We know that this government, with their relationship with the National Assembly, there is no bill that they want to pass that they will not pass within 48 hours.”

The union also called for the proposed legislation to be transmitted to the states for the constitutional requirement of obtaining the approval of at least 24 state Houses of Assembly.

Beyond state police, the TUC urged the government to deploy modern technology and equipment to tackle insecurity, describing the security situation as one requiring emergency measures.

“When a nation is not secured, you cannot start talking about building of hospitals, building of roads,” the union said, stressing that Nigeria must treat insecurity as a national emergency.

On food security, the labour centre backed the Federal Government’s decision to allow food importation, warning against abruptly ending the policy while insecurity continues to prevent farmers from returning to their farms.

It said food importation should only be discontinued when domestic production had sufficiently increased and the supply side of the economy had been addressed.

“We are calling on government to sustain this policy and solve the state of insecurity so that our farmers could go back to farm.

“When our farmers could go back to farm in their numbers, when we are now producing food and we have solved the issues of supply, then we can now say it is high time for us to stop food importation.”

It warned that stopping food imports prematurely could trigger another sharp increase in the prices of staple foods, including rice, tomatoes and yam, even as the labour centre noted that prevailing food prices remained high.

The TUC also renewed its call for the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to further strengthen the naira, arguing that the currency remains undervalued despite its recent relative stability.

The union said the exchange rate, which had risen to about N1,700-N1,800 to the dollar during the height of the crisis, had now stabilised around N1,380/$ but remained too high.

“We still believe that our Naira is still undervalued. It is not overvalued, but undervalued.”

The labour centre said the fair value of the naira, based on purchasing power parity, could be between N900 and N1,000 to the dollar, adding that the CBN had the capacity to move the exchange rate towards that level.

“We strongly believe that the fair value of our Naira, using purchasing power parity, could be somewhere around N900, maximum N1,000 to a dollar.”

It argued that a stronger naira would eventually translate into lower inflation and reduced prices of goods and services.

According to the TUC, the benefits of macroeconomic reforms had yet to adequately reach ordinary Nigerians because the stabilisation of key indicators had not translated into corresponding relief in the cost of living.

The labour centre also criticised the implementation of consequential adjustments arising from the N70,000 national minimum wage, arguing that workers had not received salary increases commensurate with the impact of naira devaluation.

It said while the cost of imported goods and services had reflected the weaker naira, workers’ earnings had not kept pace with the rising cost of living as the union said, “The only people that devaluation hurts is actually the workers.”

The TUC argued that while the new minimum wage represented a significant increase over the previous N30,000 minimum wage, the consequential adjustments implemented by various tiers of government had been inadequate.

“In some places, they were just adding the N40,000 difference between N70,000 and N30,000. That N40,000 difference was just added across board,” it said.

The labour centre also threw its weight behind the ongoing strike by aviation workers, accusing airlines of preventing workers from unionising and failing to remit about N25 billion in a five per cent ticket charge meant for workers.

The TUC said the strike, involving the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), an affiliate of the labour centre, followed unresolved concerns over workers’ right to organise.

It insisted that the right to unionise was protected by both International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions and Nigerian law.

“For us, from the ILO Convention to the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is our indelible right to unionise. We have the right, so no employer can stop an employee from belonging to the union.”

The TUC said it had been engaging relevant authorities to find an amicable resolution to the dispute but warned that merely persuading workers to suspend the strike without addressing its underlying causes would only create another crisis.

“If you try to placate the issues without resolving it, and we call off the strike today, tomorrow there will be another strike again. It is better we go to the root cause and resolve the issues once and for all.”

The labour centre also issued a warning to hotels allegedly preventing workers from joining unions, specifically naming Abuja Continental Hotel, as it accused some hotels of frustrating attempts by workers to organise and threatened industrial action if the situation was not resolved.

“A note of warning that the time of talk, talk, talk is almost over. If they want their business to continuously thrive, they should allow those workers there to be organised. But if they refuse, we will come after them. We will disrupt their business and we will ensure that what they don’t want to do in the lawful way, we will force them to get it done.”

On the country’s refineries, the labour centre once again backed the position of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) that the Federal Government should avoid outrightly selling the facilities and instead adopt a model that gives strategic private investors a controlling equity stake.

The union again proposed that government retain a maximum of 49 per cent equity while competent private sector investors take 51 per cent.

It urged government to attract genuine investors with expertise in refinery and petrochemical operations rather than politically connected individuals.

“Let people that clearly understand how to run refineries, people who have petrochemical plants all over the world, let them come and buy equity in the refinery,” it said.

According to the TUC, giving private investors majority ownership would ensure that commercial considerations, rather than political interests, drive decisions on the operation of the refineries.

“Decision-making are not reached emotionally. Decision-making are not reached politically. But decision-making are reached when you look at the economics, when you look at the commercial considerations,” it said.

The labour centre said the model would reduce government interference and improve accountability in the management of the
country’s strategic petroleum assets.

It therefore endorsed the ongoing efforts involving NNPC and potential private investors, saying the refinery sector needed investors with proven technical and commercial expertise to make the facilities sustainable