The Steel and Engineering Workers’ Union of Nigeria (SEWUN) has urged the Federal Government to scrap the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) over its alleged failure to revitalize the nation’s automobile sector through privatization.
According to SEWUN, every automobile company sold under the BPE-led privatization program has either collapsed or struggles to survive due to corruption and lack of transparency in the process.
The union claimed that companies were sold to individuals without the necessary technical know-how or financial capacity to run them, leading to the collapse of the automobile industry and the loss of thousands of jobs. SEWUN emphasized that the Federal Government must urgently review the entire privatization policy and take decisive action to revive the auto sector, warning that continued inaction could plunge the industry into total extinction.
Beyond the auto sector crisis, SEWUN also addressed broader national issues, particularly Nigeria’s worsening economic woes. The union called on the Federal Government to intensify efforts in job creation, infrastructural development, healthcare, and education as critical steps to tackling unemployment, hunger, insecurity, and inflation. SEWUN also threw its weight behind the creation of state police, arguing that it would curb insecurity by over 70 percent.
The union rejected any move to reinstate the previous fuel subsidy regime but cautioned against government policies that leave Nigerians at the mercy of hunger and poverty.
SEWUN urged the government to introduce a restructured, people-centered intervention to cushion the effect of reforms on the masses.
The union also expressed solidarity with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in its push for the reconstitution of the boards of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and the National Pension Commission (PenCom).