The newly elected General Secretary of the Regional Organisation of International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa), Comrade Akhator Joel Odigie has declared that the organisation is poised to ensure the structural deficit of Africa is addressed.
Speaking shortly after his emergence as the new general Secretary of ITUC-Africa at the just concluded 5th Ordinary Congress of the organization in Nairobi Kenya, Comrade Joel said ” we will contribute more to structural transformation of Africa”.
While dedicating his victory to God Almighty, the Nigeria born trade Unionist said “let me share a secret with you, it has been God Almighty all the way .
“I am immensely grateful to my God , He has been everything and all things to me , inspire of my shortcomings , He has been consistent and given me strength.
“For almost two weeks now, it been difficult sleeping even six hours but here I am standing , it can only be God. And I know that this God that has brought us here will be able to take us far together”.
He called for support and prayers as the organization focuses going forward on pursuing human and trade union rights.
“So for our members , we asked for your support and even those who believe in what we do, we ask that you continue to pray for us to do more.
“The structural deficit of Africa , we want to contribute more to structural transformation of Africa . In other words, how do we contribute more to make Africa part of the global chain .
“We have so much mineral resources deposit in our continent, but we don’t contribute to the value addition , so we are going to look at how we can address that . “We will through advocacy and mobilisation demand that our governments invest in research and development, skills , as well as capacity development for young people to be engaged.
“We are in fourth industrial revolution , we don’t have the time to seat back, so our business is not to lament, but how we can contribute to moving the situation forward .
“AMKA Africa , which is the theme of this Year Congress is a clarion call to action, solidarity and a collective mobilisation and forward movement. So we are going to be critical, deliberate and consistent in pushing our people to walking together to ensuring the spaces for the attainment of a transform Africa, a prosperous Africa that her prosperity can be share .
“We are interested in issues of human and trade union rights , where we have failing back or lost ground , we want to reclaim the spaces. This is because Covid-19 , has shown the increase of state power and the shrinking of human and trade union rights as well as civil liberty opportunity and spaces.
“We want to reclaim and returned them. We have been talking about addressing poverty in our continent, the question is about finances and potential . We are not just going to be asking for social protection, but walking with our governments to pointing them the opportunities on how to attract resources to addressing social protection issues.
“That is why in this Congress , we have launched a debt campaign which we are going to push forward , our campaign on illicit financial flow would be link to this campaign going forward.
“I made a commitment on behalf of our members that in the next four years , we would attract four million new membetahip , so Organising is critical and central to it, but we would do so by making sure that our unions are attractive to people to join.
“Our focus will be on women and young people making them understand why union is attractive, We would go to campuses and even secondary schools to catch them young.
“Our work on migration continues, but much more so, we want to increase our activities on social protection and social dialogue . Understanding that the more we have the space to speak and bring our voices in addition to issues of workers , then we are in a better place to increasing the situation collectively .
“So this aspect is something we are taking seriously going forward . I talked about collaborating with the global south , our brothers and sisters outside Africa , we want to reconnect including the diaspora , moreso , we want to improve our solidarity work with unions, organisations and countries that need them .
“We talked about Western Sahara, Palestine , Cuba, Haiti, we would continue to do more collaborative work with them. Let me also appreciate our delegates , also let me share a secret with you, it has been God Almighty all the way . I am immensely grateful to my God , He has been everything and all things to me , inspire of my shortcomings , He has been consistent and given me strength because almost two weeks now, it been difficult sleeping even six hours but here I am standing , it can only be God. And I know that this God that has brought us this far will be able to take us far together . So for our members , we asked for your support and even those who believe in what we do, we ask that you continue to pray for us to do more “.
END.
