'We'll end incessant strikes' - President assures

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, September 2, declared his administration's commitment to boosting national productivity as part of measures to end incessant strikes by workers in vital sectors of the nation’s economy.

The president stated this at a meeting with the Permanent Secretary and Directors of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity held in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said he is particularly disturbed by the seemingly endless strikes in Nigeria's health sector which had contributed to the fall in the standard of health services available across the country.

Buhari, therefore, directed the ministry’s officials to liaise with other stakeholders and quickly work out proposals for ending the recurring strikes in health, education, transport, oil and gas, power and other critical sectors.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who was also present at the meeting, urged the officials to make an input to the plan for the extension of welfare services to poor and disabled persons.

The Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Clement Illoh, attributed some of the recurrent strikes to the inclination of some government officials to enter into agreements with financial implications without carrying the Ministries of Finance and Labour along.

He said the Ministry of Labour had introduced a Code of Conduct barring Government Negotiators from entering into agreements with financial implications without the consent of the President.