The union posited that an economy that did not generate jobs but with increasing unemployment rate cannot just crawl out of recession as claimed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Speaking at an Annual Industrial Relations Conference in Lagos, the National President, SEWUN, Comrade Elijah Adigun, stated that over 272 factories were shut while over 3,000 people lost their jobs in the steel subsector of the Nigerian economy.
According to him, “over 3,000 steel and engineering workers have lost their jobs while the sector also experienced the closure of 272 factories since 2016 till date. Any economy that is not producing goods and services cannot come out of recession.”
He said since governments are not protecting local industries enough, workers lost their jobs and the “imported inflation” ensures consumers’ purchasing powers reduce, noting that such an economy will slide into recession, needing a robust production-based solution(s) to exit the recession.
“Our deficiencies have to do with inconsistencies, policy summersault and inefficiency as those manning various sectors of our economy are operating outside their field of expertise. What Nigeria needs is a very good crop of technocrats to drive the ship of the economy out of the ocean of recession,” he said.
He argued that the challenges of operating in the country’s current economic context, while being conscious of global standards and trends, informed the union’s choice of ‘Employing Information Technology as a platform for increased effectiveness in a Globalised Economy’ as theme for this year’s workshop.
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