Vice President Aliu Mahama has urged Trades Unions to inculcate in the working people the love for work and productivity instead of mere agitation for rights. "Our trade unions should not limit their activities to the education of workers only as regards their rights, but also regarding their duties and responsibilities".

The Vice President was opening a three-day conference for officials of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) of Ghana and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to develop strategies to assist their governments in dealing with international trade issues.

The over 100 participants including 40 from Nigeria representing 29 unions, are also to develop a perspective on how to strengthen the Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA) in an era of sub-regional integration.

The conference, the second to be held by the unions, is on the Theme: "Strengthening our Common Bond for Peace, Democracy and Development".

The Vice President told officials of the unions to help to establish the values for peace, democracy and development in the two countries and Africa at large to promote development.

"For decades, we have paid a high price for the absence of good governance in many parts of our continent, with civil wars and social strife being the order of the day". He said trade unions were key to the cornerstone of democratic governance, in that they act as a galvanizing force for positive social change. "We are now determined to see our working people in full employment, our educational facilities expanded, health services improved and expansion in infrastructural development, all directed towards improving the living standards of our people", Alhaji Aliu added.

The Vice President urged the conference to discuss trade unions' role in the successful implementation of NEPAD and to develop strategies to strengthen and promote the fledging democracies of the two countries.

Mr. Kwesi Adu-Amankwa, Secretary-General of the TUC said the historic conference was taking place at a time when the lives of many of the working people the union represented in the sub-region were precarious.

According to the World Development Report, the share of the population living on less than one dollar a day in sub-Saharan Africa moved from 46.6 per cent in 1987 to 49.7 in 1993 and then to 46.3 in 1998.

Mr. Adu-Amankwa said Africa ranked high among the regions of the world assailed by poverty adding, "taking a look at the world of work across Africa, unemployment and underemployment represent the most striking hallmarks of poverty and underdevelopment".