By Bimbola Oyesola
Workers in the food sector of the economy have charged Nigerians to believe in a better future for the country through their thoughts and actions.
President of the National Union of Food Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE), Lateef Oyelekan, speaking during the investiture and award ceremony organised for the leadership of the union by the Centre for Ethics and Self Value Orientation in Lagos, said there was hope for the country in spite of the present challenges.
“There’s hope for this country. We only need to change our orientation and ideology. I believe that, if we can all work as a team, we would change the story of this country for good,” he said.
Oyelekan said the union within its capability has over 180 staff and after the completion of the ongoing hotel infrastructures in Ibadan, the union would increase its staff strength to over 250.
He noted that more jobs can be created not only through the Organised Private Sectors, but government agencies most especially at the local level must also do whatever they can to change the story of unemployment in the country.
He said, “More jobs can be created through the local governments. I believe that if each of the 774,000 can employ over 10,000, that will greatly reduce unemployment and youth restiveness. Definitely we all know that an idle hand is a devil’s workshop.”
On the award and investiture which was based on the track record of the union and exemplary leadership, Oyelekan said that the union never knew its actions are being monitored by any outside organisation.
“We never knew that what we are doing are being observed by anybody outside. Our executive work together as a team to have recorded the success you have noticed. What this recognition wil do, is to charge us to do more and we would like to encourage you to further spread your tentacles to the grassroots to salvage the country from further destruction,” he said.
The Executive Director of the Centre for Ethics and Self Value Orientation, Musa Yakubu said that the organisation’s mission is to serve as a whistle blower and fish out corrupt leaders and organisations while equally recognising those who have maintained high integrity in the discharge of their responsibilities.
“We are bent on changing the narratives of governance in Nigeria and will continue to look out for criminals. We are the largest single anti corruption agency and have whistleblowers all over the nation,” he stated.
He explained that the organisation never had any interaction with the leadership of NUFBTE until the day of the investiture when it came to the union’s secretariat, but has done its due diligence and investigation as it had always done to arrive at those to be commended.
He said, “We believe that no nation can survive without virile unions, but we are in an era when some union leaders have gone morally bankrupt, when some have compromised.
“Nigeria supposed to have been a developed nation as projected by our forefathers, but corrupt leaders have continued to hold the nation down. Records showed that we’ve lost over $400 billion to corruption. We are going after them, we will not rest on our oars until we chased all those corrupt leaders out of governance.
“We are country that celebrates hypocrisy, royal fathers are also culpable, given titles to criminals.”
The legal representative of the union also commented that the award was not misguided as the Presidency had at a time investigated the union’s account and after visiting all the union’s projects threw away the petition that led to the inquiry.