By Valentine Amanze
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has saluted Nigerian workers as they commemorate the 2020 International Workers’ Day on May 1.
The party also lamented that the workers were marking the Labour Day at a time Coronovirus (COVID-19) was ravaging the world.
In a statement by its Naional Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the ruling party advised Nigerian workers to utilise the period of the lockdown against the pandemic to equip themselves with information and skills that would enable them become more productive.
It also pleaded with the workers to use the changing global work culture to tap into opportunities that the eventual and gradual easing of the lockdown would bring.
Besides, the APC acknowledged the efforts, resilience, patience and commitment of the Nigerian workers in the task of nation building.
While assuring the workers that the Federal Government would continue to prioritise their welfare, the APC also assured that President Muhammadu Buhari was putting measures in place to ensure that workers and, indeed, all Nigerians were not negatively impacted from the economic effects of the pandemic now and in the future.
It stated: “The various economic stabilisation policies by the government and the establishment of the Economic Sustainability Committee by the President, which is headed by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, is a clear demonstration of the seriousness the Federal Government attaches to the well-being of Nigerian workers in particular, and Nigerians in general.
“We urge workers not to relent in their support for this administration as we battle COVID-19, in addition to getting the nation’s economy back on its trajectory of growth as quickly as possible.” The APC however acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented disruption in normal lives, particularly work, stressing that the long-term consequences of the pandemic — how it will reshape work culture, ways of doing business, provision of services and new opportunities — are still difficult to imagine.
