By Joan Nwagwu
Abuja – The Federal Government says it is working assiduously to ensure that all ratified International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions are implemented with prompt report rendition.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige stated this when a team of expert from the ILO visited him in his office on Monday in Abuja.
According to him, it is important to express government’s efforts at aligning the country’s labour laws with the contemporary issues in labour administration and in the spirit of ILO convention, to which Nigeria is a signatory.
“In this regards, efforts are being made to fast track the passage of the outstanding labour laws by the National Assembly.
“This is with necessary review and amendment in tandem with development in international labour standards and the dynamics in Nigeria labour administration system, policies and practices.
“In order to ensure that progress was made in updating these outstanding labour bills, officials of the Ministry of Labour and Employment recently undertook in-house validation meeting to effect corrections and inputs made during the tripartite plus meeting.
“The bill was also prepared for further scrutiny, validation and consensus building by all stakeholders.
“I want to assure you that we will again re-energize the various departments so we can speed up on the revalidation of the bills to see the one we can again get into law,” he said.
Ngige, however, said that Nigeria was one of the frontline member-states of the ILO, having been recently elected into the governing board of the global body; as a government representative, workers representatives and employers’ representative.
He said hence Nigeria would not be seen to be lagging behind.
The minister also assured the ILO officials that with the technical assistance that the ILO rendered, Nigeria would work diligently to ensure that it tenders its outstanding reports by September, as stipulated.
“We will do so and I want to assure you that we will not fail, the minister said.
Earlier, Mr David Dakenoo, team leader of the ILO, stated that the mission came at the request of the Government of Nigeria.
According to him, the team came in order to build the capacity of the ministry and relevant stakeholder in the country and to enable Nigeria to fulfill its obligation on the reporting of ILO standards, which are outstanding.
He said their mission was to interact with the minister and other relevant stakeholders in the labour sector, with the aim of facilitating the reports on ratified conventions by Nigeria, which are due in September.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ILO team of experts had a two-day intensive training programme for the ministry and other relevant stakeholders in the labour sector.
(NAN)
