Entrenched social security will end agitation in Nigeria, says Emmanuel

Udom Emmanuel, governor of Akwa Ibom state, says a functional social security scheme will serve as panacea for diverse agitations across the country.

He made this known on Thursday while playing host to Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, and a team of NSITF officials, who were in Uyo, the state capital, for a two-day retreat.

Emmanuel said the NSITF scheme is a welcome development in social security in Nigeria need but urged the operators of the board to step up enlightenment on the scheme to create awareness of its implications and earn the trust of workers.

Emmanuel said social security keeps the people calmer and lessens agitation, adding that Nigeria’s huge population cannot ignore such a scheme.

“Any country that this is put in place, the people are calmer and the agitation is much less. We really need this in a country like Nigeria where the population is so huge. I’m also hoping that there will be a time in Nigeria our social security will really work, because social security in other parts of the world started in this format, where u can take and provide for the days when you are weak,” he said.

“We need more enlightenment. People still contribute but they don’t know what to do and what steps they need to take. I think in this age of social media there should be a proper website to educate people, because you need workers’ trust. So awareness from your own side to show that people are saving for their own future.”

Emmanuel criticised the “politicisation” of development programmes and institutions as an impediment to development and drew the minister’s attention to exclusion of Akwa Ibom state from the sovereign wealth fund board despite being the highest contributor to the fund.

“I want to see a new order in Nigeria where things of development will stand on their own. And if we don’t redefine that today, we will all regret tomorrow. Some of these institutions are things that we really need for proper social structures in the country. These are institutions that are not supposed to follow partisanship,” he said.

He said if Nigeria could play its proper role, African countries with smaller economies are supposed to transship from Nigeria and even trade with the naira, rather than worry about having their own seaports.

Ngige thanked the Akwa Ibom governor for the warm reception, describing Uyo as the pride and choice town of Nigeria’s south-south region and the governor as a creditable manager of resources.

Ngige explained that the NSITF is an agency of the federal government under the supervision of his ministry charged with managing workers’ social security, protection from work-related hazards and ensuring adequate compensation in the case of accident, incapacitation or death.