The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says it is uncertain if the country could be one of the 20 leading economies of the world in 2020 in view of the current poor salaries being paid her workers.

 Vice President of the Congress, Issa Aremu, who expressed the doubt in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, while fielding questions from reporters, noted that a worker couldn’t be productive if he is hungry. He stressed that labour is the most important factor of production.

  According to him, the NLC would not relent in its struggle to ensure that Labour remained permanently on the exclusive and not concurrent legislative list as being proposed by the Senate. He praised the stand of the House of Representatives on the matter.

  Reacting to what he described as Jumbo pay of Nigerian lawmakers, Aremu said their emoluments could not be sustained with the current finances of the nation and that their salaries do not reflect the reality of the Nigerian economy or their performances.

  The Labour leader, therefore, called on Nigerian workers to vote against any selfish political office seeker in the forthcoming elections in the country, lamenting that most of the public office holders have not performed to the expectation of the masses. Aremu described the NLC as the biggest trade union centre in Africa with about five million organised members across 42 industry affiliated unions, but lamented the rate of unemployment in the country as many factories are closing down thereby throwing workers out of job.

  Aremu, who noted that the Nigerian factories have a potential workforce capacity of 80 million people when in full production, lamented its current employment rate, which he put at about five million. He, therefore, urged the leaders to be more proactive in providing good governance to the citizens and tackling squarely the insecurity challenges the nation is currently facing. 

  Aremu criticised the idea of government sponsoring pilgrims to either Saudi Arabia or Jerusalem, describing it as a wasteful venture.