Workers Day: Lawan urges labour to consider higher national interest always

Ahead of the May 1 Workers Day celebration, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on Friday Senator urged organised labour to always look at the larger picture and consider higher national interest in their responses to government policies and actions.

Lawan stated this on Friday,while commommerating this year’s workers day celebration coming up on 1 May, 2021.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Ola Awoniyi, the Senate President assured workers that “the National Assembly believes in the well-being and welfare of the workers and will always provide legislative support for every effort to tackle their challenges and improve the work environment.”

Recalling that the Nigerian workers across the generations have continued to drive economic productivity, nation-building and democratic governance in the country, Senator Lawan iterated the commitment of the Ninth Senate to “Work for Nigeria.”

He added that the National Assembly under him “…will continue to stand by the Nigerian workers to rid our statute books of anti-labour laws and promote legislations that will make our society a better place for the working people.”

The statement reads: “I felicitate with the Nigerian workers on this occasion of the Worker’s Day of International Solidarity and Unity.

“The Nigerian Labour Movement has a proud heritage beginning from the heroic contributions of its founding fathers like Pa Micheal Imodu and his contemporaries in the struggle for the independence of Nigeria and emancipation of workers and the masses.”

This is as he noted that May 1 “has been set aside every year to celebrate workers as the creators of wealth and to reflect on how to improve their work environment and welfare.”

International Workers’ Day, also known as Labour Day in most countries and often referred to as May Day is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement.

The date had been chosen by the American Federation of Labour to continue an earlier campaign in support of working-class demands for eight-hour of labour per day.

He further commended the country’s “workers for their patience, understanding and also their resilience in the face of the current challenges that our nation is facing.”