Reforms Destroying Jobs in Nigeria, Others, Laments PSI -- Vanguard Reported

_PUBLIC Services International, PSI, West African region, has said that the reform programme in the African continent; especially the West African sub-region is killing jobs and compounding poverty.

At the 2014 English speaking (East and West) Africa Sub-Regional Advisory Committee, SUBRAC, in Abuja, organised by 

Public Services International, PSI, participants lamented that job losses had been worsening the level of poverty in the continent.

Speaking, Deputy President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, said another consequence of the reform was the militancy and other forms of criminality in the region.

He argued that when the government killed jobs, people were made to be redundant and became willing tools to carry out criminal activities, stressing that the issue of Boko Haram would have not existed if there were jobs available for the youths.

Ajaero who is also the General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, said that the masses were yet to experience any positive impact from the civil service reforms and that if any impact existed; the negative impact outweighed the positive.

According to him, since the privatisation of electricity in the country, the power situation had not improved while many Nigerians had lost their jobs and tariffs are on the increase, thereby making the workers poorer. While appealing to the governments within the region to take a critical look at the reforms, he also appealed to them to encourage women and youths employment in ministries, department and parastatals.

In his goodwill message, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu noted that PSI was a global Trade Union Federation representing 20 million working men and women who deliver public services in 150 countries.

Wogu said the public service reflected the form of political structure in a society, adding that historically, the public service in Nigeria was a child of colonialism, borne out of a need to have a body of officials to implement the ordinances and other decisions of the British Monarch.