The Akwa Ibom state House of Assembly speaker, Barr Onofiok Luke, has urged the federal government headed by President Muhammadu Buhari to adopt a bipartisan approach in tackling the lingering insecurity in the country.
Luke, who gave the admonition during the 2019 Workers Day Wednesday at the Uyo Township Stadium, said party lines must be secondary in fighting the deteriorating security situation across the Nigeria.
“The time has come for leaders to collaborate and look beyond party lines for solution to the lingering insecurity in the country.
“We need a bipartisan approach to solving the crises which we are facing in the country. Insecurity in Nigeria is affecting everyone. I urge the president to rise and mobilise the entire leadership of Nigeria, the workers, so that we can put a stop to this insecurity.
“Without security in the country, there won’t be foreign direct investment and 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 was recently elected member of 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 for taking advantage of the open legislative policy of the state 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 was never a time that we invited you for public hearing that you never turned up to make your input into the bills and the resolutions we passed.
“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.”
Chairman of the state NLC, Comrade Elder Sunny James, in his address commended the assembly under Luke’s leadership for continued partnership with workers in the state.
He noted that the state assembly 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 assembly on youth development fund and the fiscal responsibility bills.”
