March 28, 2024

IndustriALL Bemoan Expatriate Quota Abuse in Nigeria, Says WTO Improverished African Economies

IndustriALL Global Union Federation has decried the rate of expatriate quota abuse in the oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria.

The Union made their position known during the 2019 African Industrialisation Day with the theme: “Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development” in Calabar.

Mr Momoh Adamson, Principal Assistant Secretary-General of NUPENG, said such abuse is against labour laws and should be stopped.

He maintained that most of the jobs done by the expatriate could also be handled by well trained and experienced Nigerians in all fields.

“Expatriate quota is being manipulated and to bring in all kinds of people to do jobs that can be done locally leading to economic flight,” he said.

Also speaking, Comrade Isa Aremu, Vice President, IndustriALL Global Union, said it was time for all stakeholders in Nigeria to maximize the benefits of the new African Free Trade Agreement.

Aremu, was represented at the occasion by Mr John Adaji, President of Nigerian Textile Garment and Workers Union.

Comrade Aremu stated that Nigeria being the largest economy on the continent with disproportional burden of unfair trade through dumping of goods and illegal import, it was a good idea that President Mahammadu Buhari made contacts with relevant stakeholders before signing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement to get relevant inputs.

He said the World Trade Organisation failed to deliver a global trading framework that puts the needs of the people above those of global capital which brought poverty and unemployment.

“The membership of World Trade Organisation, WTO, by most African countries including Nigeria in the 1990s with attendant massive lowering of tariffs through wholesale trade liberalisation arrested the nascent African manufacturing and development leading to massive collapse of labour intensive industries, such pitfalls have to be avoided,” Aremu stated.

He said Nigeria needs in trade rather than external aid and loans from Europe, America and China and lamented that manufacturing level has dropped to 5% from 20% in the eighties and called for refocus on industrialisation than imports into the country.

IndustriALL Global Union represents 50 million workers in 140 countries in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors and is a force in global solidarity taking up the fight for better working conditions and trade union rights around the world.

IndustriALL challenges the power of multinational companies and negotiates with them on a global level. IndustriALL fights for another model of globalization and a new economic and social model that puts people first, based on democracy and social justice.

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