The Director General of the premier Micheal IMOUDU National Institute for labour studies, ( MINILS) Ilorin Comrade Issa Aremu has hailed the late Pope Francis who died on Monday “as the most enthusiastic promoter of dignity of labour and decent work after the late John Paul 11”
In his tribute to the global outpouring of mourns, Comrade Aremu said Pope Francis was “not just the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, but second possibly only to the late Pope John Paul 11 who served as Pope from 1978 to 2005 in his audacious impactful advocacy for decent secured work as favored by the International Labour Organization ( ILO) .
Aremu recalled with nostalgia that while alive Pope Francis had engaged with the premier UN agency: ILO to promote decent mass job creation to combat global youth unemployment . He said in 2021 in his speech celebrating the 109 years since the founding of the International Labour Organisation, Pope Francis l stressed the importance of legal standards towards employment growth, decent work and workers’ rights. .
Comrade Issa Aremu who was also former Vice President of 50 million strong IndustriAll Global Union and Vice President NLC said the International labour movement would miss in the death of Pope Francis a papal voice for Labour’s rights “at times like this when capital arrogantly reigns with its devastating legacy of jobless – growth and precarious jobs” adding that only Pope John Paul had more quotable quotes Defence of dignity of work and labour market institutions in recent times “!