Joseph lnone Awala, Nation¬al President of the Nigerian Welders and Fitters Union (NIWELFU), has appealed to President Muhammadu Bu¬hari to use his good offices to direct companies operating in Nigeria over what they termed their unpatriotic and unpopular decision to bring in foreign welders and fitters from China, Thailand, India, Egypt, Singapore, among oth¬ers, for the construction of their projects in the country as they have neglected the Ni¬gerian welders and fitters to the detriment of our national building efforts.

Awala, who made this statement during a press conference after a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Benin City, Edo State capital, reminded the President that the Warri, Port-Harcourt, Kaduna Refineries, Kaduna-Petro¬chemical, Port-Harcourt Pet¬rochemical, Escravos-Lagos Transmission Line, ECOW¬AS Gas Line, NLG Bonny, and other notable projects, were built by Nigerian weld¬ers and fitters with requisite knowledge years ago.

Awala, therefore, won¬dered how the argument of inexperienced welders and fitters can come to play as a reason given by most of the companies to dump them in clear negligence of the Local Content Act in a critical time like this without any due re¬spect for national interest

Awala, who was deter¬mined to anchor his argu¬ment on concrete and veri¬fiable evidence, recalled that it is necessary to remind the President that this same Ni¬gerian Welders and Fitters the companies have branded as incompetent, successfully in the past executed projects of international repute en¬dorsed by the International Standard Organisation (ISO) in Angola, Turkey, South Ko¬rea and several other nations to drive home the truth that we do not lack competent welders and fitters in Nige¬ria.

Awala observed that there is an urgent need for Presi¬dent Buhari and the leader¬ship of the Senate, through the Senate Committee on Ethics, Public Petitions and Privileges, to call these com¬panies to order and also to ensure that they comply with the Nigerian Labour Laws and Regulatory Guidelines due to the adverse effect of the continuous practice of this skewed employment policies targeted to make life difficult for them in particular and the domestic economy in general.

Speaking further, he said that anything short of that will spell doom for the nation hence, the clarion call for all hands to be on deck to check¬mate this untoward malady. (Daily Independent)

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