A call has been made for sustainable improved mass knowledge on the implementation and management of reforms as a panacea for overcoming the current economic crisis.
The Director General of Micheal IMOUDU National Institute for Labour studies (MINILS) Comrade Issa Aremu made this observation on Monday at the opening of the 32nd Education Conference on the National Union of Chemical Employees ( NUFLAMPE) in Nigeria in Ilorin.
Speaking on the theme: Capacity Building for Effective Industrial Relations in An Era of Economic Crisis” comrade Aremu said with spiral inflation, Naira value fall, rising unemployment and recent mass protests, Nigeria currently faces economic crisis. He however observed that a sustained improvement of knowledge by all stakeholders on the implementation and management of the reforms was urgent to maximize the benefits of reforms.
Comrade Aremu observed that while reforms initiated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu were inevitable to “free the much needed resources” for economic recovery and poverty eradication, he added that sustainable reforms must be gradual and participatory for citizens’ ownership and support. The Director General therefore called for what he called “mass literacy about imperatives of reforms as well as responses to reforms through capacity building on the imperatives of social dialogue for policy reform. According to him the “three sustainable solutions” to the current economic crisis in Nigeria are “ education, education and education”.
He disclosed that in line with the ministerial mandate of the Institute arrangement is almost concluded to organize a 2024 National Labour Summit MINILS on “The Future of Work and Renewed Hope Agenda: Issues and Perspectives”.
Comrade Aremu commended members and leadership of private sector union of Chemical Employees ( NUFLAMPE) for their investment in workers’ education over the past decades. In his remarks, the National President of Union of Chemical Employees, comrade Babatunde Olatunji noted that investment in workers education has paid off in terms of industrial peace, industrial justice and harmony in the chemical leather and footwear sector of the economy.