 The Vice-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Labour and Employment, Senate of Victor Ume. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mostafa, the head of the civil service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyoyita, the Honorable Minister of State for Labor and Employment, Professor Stephen O'Cheney, the Honorable Minister of the FCT, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Christian Cheyeka Oha, the President of the Nigeria Labor Congress, Comrade Ayuba Waba, the President of the TUC, Comrade Popoa Iba Kaigama, the Deputy Director-General of the ILO, Dr. Cynthia Samuel O'Long Jumeau, members of the diplomatic community present, the all of our guests who are present here, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I'm delighted to be here on this historic occasion marking the International Workers' Day, otherwise known as May Day, which is also coming on the heels of the centenary celebrations of the International Labor Organization. These two events have far-reaching significance for workers in particular and for the world of work in general. One defined and regulated world of work through international, through the international labor standards, and the other established the protection of the fundamental rights and dignity of the working people. These critical events have over the years defined employment relations globally. Another uniqueness, another uniqueness of this year's international labor, this year's celebrations is that the ILO, the International Labor Organization, as part of its arrangements towards the celebration of its centenary, gave member states the opportunity to select their country themes in the spirit of the centenary. It is in recognition of this that our country chose the theme for this year's May Day celebrations as, I quote, another hundred years of struggle for jobs, dignity and social justice in Nigeria, end of quote. You may recall that at the attainment of independence, we became a member of the International Labor Organization. The early decision to join the ILO was predicated on the strong conviction that the International Labor Organization and international labor standards as formulated by the ILO since its inception in 1999, aimed at promoting opportunities for decent and productive work under conditions of freedom, equity, security and dignity, was imperative in building a viral strong workforce which our young country at that time needed for its rapid socioeconomic development. It is for this reason that the centenary celebration of the ILO is both emotive and sentimental for us as a nation and in particular for workers. It is of utmost importance for me to state here that the ILO had over the years supported our country in the development and implementation of labor-related policies, action plans and programs to tackle child labor, forced labor, modern slavery and human trafficking. Recently, the ILO also collaborated with Nigeria in her affirmation as a member of Pathfinder countries on the elimination of child labor, forced labor, modern slavery and human trafficking. Pathfinder countries are pioneer countries of Alliance 8.7 who have decided to pull resources together and channel the same towards the achievement of target 8.7 sustainable development goals which allows and request the ILO to support further in addition the ILO conventions especially those ratified by our country have been useful in the formulation of our national labor legislation and policies that govern employment and employment relations and good conduct of industrial relations in general. I am optimistic that we shall continue to leverage on these collaborations to further strengthen our labor institutions, update labor legislation and policies in tandem with international best practices as well as foster stronger ties among social partners in the coming years. Comrades, I'm also convinced that the careful selection of the theme is a reflection of our collective commitment to job creation, to protection of workers of the rights of workers, their dignity and also promoting social justice in our country as espoused in various provisions of our constitution. Therefore today's event should provide us the opportunity to reflect on our fidelity to these goals and our fidelity to the common principles that underlie the social justice and dignity of labor across the world. Our administration is firmly committed to these principles on assumption of office in 2015 in spite of the daunting economic challenges which confronted us at the time we ensured that no worker was retrenched across the country. We further kept faith with this commitment by providing bailout funds for states that were unable to pay salaries and other benefits in order to pay their accumulated arrails. We also released Paris Club refunds owed since 2005 to make sure that workers were not owed anything. We also ensured the payment of outstanding benefits of retrenched workers, the Niger Airways workers who were owed for decades. We also ensured that the transitional arrangement directorate, Peter, also paid arrails owed to power statels, civil service pensioners covering 1,000, 1,000, 1,393 civil service pensioners on all grade levels and 76,310 power statel pensioners across 186 agencies. This is in addition to the arrails paid to pensioners in police and customs in 2016 and 2018. Our administration also settled finally the issue of benefits of Nigerian armed forces and paramilitary personnel who were dismissed and later pardoned for participating on the side of secession in the cause of the civil war. That was the period between 1967 and 1970. All of these veterans have now been paid their outstanding benefits. Our social investment program is the largest of its kind in Africa and it is directed at ensuring that we're able to provide opportunities in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy. Indeed the largest numbers of Nigerian workers are the informal workers. These comrades of ours who are petty traders, smallholder farmers, artisans and tradesmen also deserve our respect and deserve the protection of all labour laws. Our MPR program which currently employs 500,000 young Nigerian drivers and an additional 75,000 in specialized training as builders, automotive technicians and in other vocations. This program itself is one that we've also expanded to include technicians in animation in animation and also specialists in other areas of technology. Our home grown school feeding program, which now feeds 9.5 million children in 30 states provides opportunities for over 100,000 cooks and farmers across the country. Our trader money and market money schemes also provides two million loans to petty traders across the country and at the next level, which is the next term of our administration, we intend to expand the scope of these micro credit loans to traders and to artisans. Our anchor boroughs program, which has also provided over to smallholder farmers across the country and already that scheme is being expanded to cover yet another one million farmers all across the country. So far so for our administration, for this administration, the theme another hundred years of struggle for jobs, dignity and social justice in Nigeria is not just a headline for this media celebration. We truly believe that the Nigerian citizen, especially those at the bottom of the pyramid, must be the central focus of all economic planning and budget. Their welfare and the well-being of all of these Nigerians who work every day, who render honest service every day is the true benchmark of our commitment as government and as a people to social justice and the dignity of all Nigerians. We'll continue to commit ourselves to the cause of improving the lot of every working Nigeria and providing for those who cannot work. In this regard, the new minimum national minimum wage, which Mr. President signed into law a few days ago, shall be fully implemented by the current administration. Let us once again express our deep appreciation to the leadership of the Nigerian workers for the understanding and maturity show during and after the negotiations of the new national minimum wage. We shall continue to provide the enabling environment for higher productivity, for industrial peace and harmony, as well as a co-genial atmosphere for effective collective bargaining among trade unions and employers, while also protecting the fundamental rights and other lawful rights of people, of Nigerian people, especially of persons who are at work. At the just concluded general elections, Nigerians and indeed Nigerian workers gave our administration another mandate to govern them. We shall reciprocate this electoral gesture by focusing on the critical issues that will advance speedily and improve the quality of the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians. This includes the building of infrastructure, roads, rail, hydro-hydroelectric power and also reforming key driving sectors of the national economy in order to put our country on a path of sustainable economic growth and prosperity. We're especially committed to changing the narrative in the power sector. Today, that sector, after it was privatized, still remains challenged in delivering power to many Nigerian homes and businesses. We must act as a matter of national importance and we are committed to doing so to rework and re-engineer the sector for much more effective performance. Workers shall be called upon to play greater roles in supporting the government to attain all of these goals that have stated. Industrial peace is central to economic stability. Every industrial disruption costs the national economy very dearly in terms of money and man hours that are lost. It is for this reason that I urge all actors in the industrial relations system to be more circumspect and patriotic and ethical in the use of industrial actions as tools for resolving workplace crisis and addressing grievances. Industrial actions because of the huge economic and social costs must be the last not the first option for resolving disputes. Comrades as we join the rest of the world today to celebrate the 2019 International Workers Day and member states of the International Labour Organization on its centenary anniversary of the ILO. Let me commend your resilience, your tenacity and sacrifice and your commitment in standing up against every form of oppression, exploitation, unfair labour practices and social injustice, especially the commodification of labour and the violation of the fundamental rights of working people of this country and the world over. Finally I want to thank you all for the support given to our administration in our first tenure and solicit for the greater support and cooperation of all of our working forces to enable us build a country where our young people will begin fully employed, there will be security of work and tenure for them and there will be a short of the protection of their fundamental rights and the fundamental rights of all working people in our country. I wish you all very happy Workers Day. Long live the International Labour Organization. Long live Nigerian Workers. Long live the Nigerian Labour Congress. Long live the TUC. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Thank you very much.