by Peter Adejobi
The 2015 Africa Industrialization Day was mark with funfair in Abuja by unions in various industrial sectors of the economy. The day was preceded by a policy Roundtable with the Theme: Eradicating Smuggling, Meeting the Financial and Energy Needs of Local Industries. This took place at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Conference Centre Abuja on Thursday 19th November 2015. The event was presided over by Comrade Issa Aremu, Chairperson of the IindustriAll Global Union Federation for sub-Saharan Africa.
The business session had leadoff papers presented by a broad array of speakers. These included Jenny Holdcroft, the policy Director of IndustriAll who spoke on inputs for sustainable Industrial policy and Mrs Adeyemo Deputy Comptroller General of Custom Mrs Adeyemo whose paper dwelt on combatting smuggling and counterfeiting.
The 2015 Africa Industrialization Day rally was held on Friday 20th of November 2015, It was led by the president of Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba; deputy president of NLC, Comrade Kiri Mohammed; the General Secretary of Congress, Comrade Peter Ozo-Eson and other Leading Comrades.
Also in attendance were Comrade Issa Aremu the Chairperson of industriAll Global Union sub-Saharan Africa the Organizers of the Rally, Mr. Fabian Nkomo the Regional Secretary IndustriAll Global Union sub-Saharan Africa, Jyrki Raina General Secretary IndustriAll Global Union, Jenny Holdcroft, Policy Director IndustriAll and almost all the private sector affiliate Unions of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress.
The Rally took off from the Labour house amidst drumming and singing of solidarity songs and proceeded to the National Assembly were some members of parliament with social movement backgrounds addressed the rally. The rally finally terminated at the Nicon Luxury Hotel, with a symposium to wrap up the day.
The Africa Industrialization Day is an annual event organized by IndustriAll Global Union which is an Organization of about 50million workers in 140 Countries in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors and is a new force in Global solidarity taking up the fight for better working conditions and trade Union rights around the world. The Organization was founded on 19th June 2012. There are 7 unions in Nigeria affiliated to the IndustriAll Global Union.
