The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Joe Ajaero yesterday urged Nigerian youths not to run away from their country in search of greener pastures, but stay and fight for its transformation.

Ajaero who made the call during his speech at the 3rd Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the National Youth Council of the NLC in Abuja, lamented the worsening state of the economy, especially the soaring prices of foodstuffs as well as goods and services.

According to him with a 50kg bag of rice now selling for N105,000, transport costs to Port Harcourt exceeding N50,000, and access to basic amenities such as housing and healthcare increasingly becoming luxuries, it was time for Nigerian youths to channel their energy into resisting the inequalities and exploitation the country has been plunged into.

He said: “This is not a time for lamentation; it is a time for determination. “No one will build our nation for us.

Running away is not an option; there is no promised land elsewhere. It is here, on our soil, that the battles must be fought and won.

“You are not just the future of Nigeria, you are the future of the trade union movement. “That future, comrades, does not exist on its own.

It must be built, shaped, and fortified by your resilience, your courage, and your vision. “If you fail in this responsibility. Others with no allegiance to workers or their welfare will hijack that future and shape it in their own image, for their own gain.”