Ex-Labour Minister wants Nasarawa Govt, NLC to embrace dialogue

A former Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Hassan Lawal, has appealed to the Nasarawa Government and the unions to embrace dialogue to end the indefinite strike by workers in the state.

Lawal made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Keffi, Keffi Local Government Area of the state on Friday.

NAN recalls that the workers embarked on indefinite strike on July 4, to protest against the 50 per cent reduction in workers salary by the state government.

He said that no conflict could be resolved without dialogue, the truth is that the leadership of NLC should always embrace dialogue because strike would cause more harm than good.

“I want to appeal for the sake of the ordinary people, the common man and the primary school pupils, let the government and the organised labour dialogue to resolve the problem,’’ he said.

Hassan also called on Nigerians to support and pray for President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and other elected leaders in the country.

He urged the youths and Nigerians to be law abiding, respect constituted authorities, shun negative tendencies and live in peace and tolerance irrespective of ethnic, religion and political affiliations.

Also, the Iyan Keffi, Alhaji Shehu Ramalan, urged Nigerians to be patient with the All Progressives Congress (APC) government.

“I am not saying that all is well but Nigerians should join hand, support, pray and also be patient with President Buhari’s administration because presently the economy is facing challenges,” he said.

Ramalan urged Nigerians to engage in meaningful ventures in order to become self-reliant, saying that government alone could not do everything for its citizens.