Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Barr Onofiok Luke, has identified ‘bipartisan approach’ as the only viable means of tackling the lingering insecurity ravaging the country.
Luke, who revealed this while addressing a crowd of workers on Wednesday at the Uyo Township Stadium during the marking of the 2019 Workers Day, said party lines must be secondary in fighting the deteriorating security situation across the Nigeria.
According to him, “I have a message for the leaders of Nigeria on this Workers Day. The time has come that the leaders must put their hands together and look beyond party lines.
“We need a bipartisan approach to solving the crises which we are facing in the country. Today there is insecurity in Nigeria, and it is affecting everyone; it is affecting the workers. I urge the president to rise and mobilise the entire leadership of Nigeria, the entire workers, so that we can put a stop to this insecurity.
“Without security in the country, there is not going to be foreign direct investment. Without foreign direct investment, businesses are not going to expand, and without business expansions, there will be no jobs.
“So I urge the president to rise to the occasion and adopt a bipartisan approach to tackle the challenge of insecurity in our country.”
Luke, who has just been elected to the House of Representatives, also noted that the Akwa Ibom State legislature under his leadership has effectively cooperated with the other arms of government towards ensuring that workers in the state got better welfare packages.
He thanked the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, for taking advantage of the open legislature policy of the Akwa Ibom state House of Assembly to make contributions to the bills and motions passed by the House.
“I want to thank the NLC and the TUC for joining hands with us to make our work easy in the legislature. There is never a time that we have invited you for public hearing that you have never turned up to make your input into the bills and the resolutions we pass.
“Let me mention here specifically that in the year 2018, the position of NLC was what led to the increase in the allocation to the social sector of the budget of that fiscal year of 2018.”
Chairman of the state NLC, Comrade Elder Sunny James, in his address commended the House of Assembly under Barr Onofiok Luke’s leadership for continued partnership with workers in the state.
He noted that the Akwa Ibom state House of Assembly has pursued a citizen-led approach to governance having “in the past four years opened its doors to the labour movement to be involved in the lawmaking process.”
He called on the signing into law “two critical legislations passed by the state House of Assembly, the youth development fund bill and the fiscal responsibility bill.”
