Confab committee recommends exclusive list for labour

The Deputy Chairman, National Conference Committee on Civil Society, Labour and Sports, Issa Aremu, on Monday said the committee had recommended that labour should be on the exclusive list.
Aremu, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja, said labour was an instrument of development and should be duly recognised.
He particularly said that minimum wage should be on the exclusive list because of its importance.
He said: “Labour must be on the exclusive list of the constitution and minimum wage law in particular must be on the exclusive list.
“Whether we are going to have a different kind of structure or not, there must be a minimum wage on the exclusive list because it is the global best practice.”
The deputy chairman also stressed the need for civil society organisations to resume their critical roles of checking abuse of power and non-service delivery by elected leaders.
Aremu said it was high time they swung into action as they did during the military regime, adding that their contributions were required to sustain democracy in the country.
He added: “The CSOs did very well during the military but it seems that they are in slumber and this is the time we need to work on democracy.
“The issues are getting more complicated, especially the issue of security.
“So, we shouldn’t leave it to government alone.
“They need to come out to make sure that our citizens are protected.
“We are looking forward to a time when there will be mass action on the part of civil society to ensure that while evil men are hiding, good people should come out openly to condemn violence.”
On sports, Aremu said that it was vital for Nigeria to return to multi-sporting activities, rather than concentrating mainly on football.
He recommended that sportsmen and women should be adequately remunerated, while sports in the country should be developed into a business to generate employment opportunities and revenue.
He said: “We have to use sports to employ our youths and we should produce sporting materials at home instead of importing.
“We import socks and jerseys when we have textile industries that can produce them.
“So, it is not only to receive medal and return home poor; the real medal is the money which can come through the industries.”
Aremu said that the committee was presently seeking ideas from CSOs and labour institutions such as the National Directorate of Employment, International Labour Organisation and National Sports Commission that would help it to come up with workable recommendations.
He said the committee had regrouped into the sub-committees on Civil Society, Labour, Youth and Sports, respectively, to enable it come up with recommendations that would be of benefit to all Nigerians.
The Chairman of the sub-committee on Sports, Dr. Rotimi Oladile, said that sports had not been given the needed attention as a social sector in the country.
Oladile said that the country had no fewer than 40 sporting activities but concentrated only on football, adding that Nigeria could generate income from other sporting activities.
He said the committee was taking a critical look at the passage of the bill on the National Sports Commission and change in the structure of leadership in sports.
The chairman said the committee was considering the need for schools to take sporting activities seriously.
He said: “Our schools, as primary agency for sports training, have lost total focus and quality.
“Primary and secondary schools no longer have recreation centres.
“Estates and communities no longer have recreation centres like we used to have.
“If you go to other countries where sports are taken seriously, every community has a training facility but in Nigeria it is not so.
“Meanwhile sports has a value change that is comparable with oil.”