From TCNEWS
THE NIGERIA UNION OF JOURNALISTS (NUJ), ABIA STATE COUNCIL has called on the Federal Government to modify some International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies adopted in the country, such as the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) to make for indigenous and home grown measures.
In a communique jointly signed by Comrade Victor Ndukwe, Chairman, NUJ Abia State Council; Comrade Adaeze Ralph Igbokwe, Secretary; Communique Drafting Committee Chairman, Journalist Leonard Okachie; and Journalist Juliet Onyebuchi, Member and issued to newsmen at the end of the monthly congress held at the NUJ PRESS CENTRE, Umuahia, the Congress urged the Abia State Government to be proactive in addressing the level of hardship among the people in the state in order to ameliorate their plights.
The Council which deliberated on a lot of issues as it concerns the state and the nation, equally urged both the Federal and State Governments to exploit the opportunity presented by the Import Substitution Policy by which public funds are used to intervene directly in the production of critical needs.
The Congress also decried the high level of impunity, intimidation and extortion of hapless citizens by the security agencies in the South East, particularly those on road blocks across the region and urged South East Governors to engage with them so to get them to perform their statutory obligation of protecting lives and property in accordance with the enshrined rules of engagement.
The Congress also commended the Board, Management and Staff of Geometrics Power Limited, on the recent inauguration of Aba Integrated Power Project, describing it as first of its kind in the history of Nigeria.
While commending the Abia State government for the assistance it extended to enable completion and inauguration of the AIPP, the Council also expected that the coming of Geometric will herald a new dawn in industrialisation that will catalyse economic growth of both Abia and Nigeria in general.
The Congress also commended the Abia State Dr Alex Otti-led administration for its audacity in embarking on several reforms of the State’s Civil Service for greater efficiency in service delivery and appealed to the Government to look into the plight of retirees in the state with a view to resolving their pension issues as a way of appreciating their sacrifices while in active service.
The communique partly read, “Government should also without delay, take a critical appraisal of the Verification Exercise and attend to the cries of those who are yet to receive salaries since the exercise began, as well as genuine civil servants whose salaries were stopped till date on account of one glitch or the other.
“Congress also calls on the state government to hasten its proposed upward review of salaries of civil servants so as to improve their welfare and cushion the harsh effects of the ravaging hardship across the land on them.
“That Congress enjoins Abia residents to massively embark on farming during this farming season in order to boost local production as a practical measure to curtail the scarcity and astronomical rise in prices of food items. The State government, on her part, should as a matter of necessity make available to Abians farm inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and improved varieties of crops at subsidized rates, as well as put strategies in place for uptake of the yields during harvest .
“Congress commends the NLC in Abia State for joining her counterparts across the country in organizing a peaceful protest against the current hardship in the country and calls on the State government to urgently come up with her own wage award and other incentives to workers in addition to any federal government welfare packages aimed at addressing the hardship currently faced by workers”.