The Honourable Minster of State Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment Prof. Stephen Ocheni has charged the National Union of Civil Engineering Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers to engage in practices that would elicit cutting edge professional practice that will contribute to infrastructural growth and development in Nigeria.
Ocheni stated this recently in Abuja at the 40th Anniversary and Infrastructural Summit of the Union with the theme: Role of infrastructure in a developing economy (A case study of Nigeria).
According to the Minister, “it is my hope that this summit would provide the platform for your members and other stakeholders to engage in discussions that would elicit cutting edge professional practice to make this 40th anniversary a landmark event that would contribute immensely towards greater infrastructural development in Nigeria”. Adding that the present administration attaches great importance to capital projects and determined to continue with viable projects.
Speaking further the Minister of State commended the union for their contributions to national growth; noting that government is particularly pleased that the union is adding value in areas of road construction, rehabilitation, furniture and wood works development in the country.
Prof Ocheni solicited the continued cooperation of the union in ensuring industrial peace and harmony particularly in workplace and Nigeria at large.
Speaking earlier, the President of Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) Comrade Ayuba Wabba said that the summit could not have come at a better time since infrastructure is the central beam that supports the entire edifice of development of any society in the 21st century. Stressing that the World Economic Forum states that every dollar spent on infrastructure has a potential of generating between 5% to 10% of economic growth.
According to him “we can only make real progress as a country if our political appointees pay more attention to infrastructural development especially by curbing stealing, increasing appropriations for capital projects and prioritizing value for money in the award of contracts while accommodating public private partnership in infrastructural rollout, government must bear in mind that no serious government especially a developmental state as ours abdicates the provision of critical national infrastructure to the private sector”
Wabba solicited that government should continue to support private sector investment in infrastructural development adding that such support must not be at the expense of competence and value for money.
In his remarks the National President of the National Union of Civil Engineering Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers, Comrade Ameachi Asugwuni said that for Nigeria economy to drive efficiently in the face of its rising population index, it requires critical infrastructure which include an unlimited access to transportation system to promote agricultural products and other locally made goods that will boost the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation.