Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha has appealed to the state and National Leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to shelve the protest against the suspension of parastatal workers in the state.
Okorocha
A statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, read, “His Excellency has wished that instead of embarking on the protest that might end up not benefitting anyone, the National Leadership of the NLC should be patriotic enough to advise the leadership of the NLC in the state to honour their invitations to participate in the high-powered 18 – member committee set up by the state governor to review the cases of the staff affected by the suspension in question, so that the matter can be resolved amicably in the spirit of no victor, no vanquished.
“The committee would have been inaugurated last Tuesday, but it could not take place because the labour representatives did not come for the exercise.
“The committee has the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) chairman in the state, chairman, Trade Union Congress (TUC), chairman Nigeria Medical Association, Imo State chapter, chairman National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Representative of Magistrates Association, Representative of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) IMSU, Imo Polytechnic, Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), chairman of Imo State branch of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and Representative of the Judiciary Service Union of Nigeria, (JUSUN) as members.
“On the part of the Government, the Head of Service, Principal Secretary to the Governor, the Attorney General, the Accountant General, Commissioner of Finance, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Principal Secretary to the Deputy Governor are also members of the committee. The chairman, Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers, HRM Eze Samuel Ohiri is equally a member.
“This is a high-profiled committee and the governor believes that with this calibre of people in the committee whatever is the bone of contention between the government and the labour union in the state over the suspension issue can be resolved.
“The government has repeatedly explained that the suspension of the parastatal workers was not an outright sack or dismissal. The suspension was to enable the new managements of the establishments involved to take off in earnest.
“So, the essence of the 18-member committee is to look at the cases of these workers and decide whether to post all of them out to other government ministries and establishments or to even ask some of them to go back to the parastatals. And until the committee sits and takes decision on the suspended workers, nobody could accuse the government of any wrong doing.”
LAGOS—NIGERIA Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday insisted that there would be a total shut down of Imo State once the 14-day ultimatum issued to the state government to recall the 3000 sacked workers and tackle their unpaid salaries and other benefits expires.
Okorocha
The Imo State government is alleged to be owing workers of the state’ agencies including Imo State Water Corporation and Imo State Transport Company, between three and 15 months salaries and other benefits.
President of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Mr. Igwe Achese, a member of the 6-man action committee set up by NLC to handle the Imo crisis, told Vanguard that all measures had been put in place for the planned action.
Achese who is also a Deputy President of the Joe Ajaero-led faction of NLC, said: “Like we made it clear when we handed down the ultimatum on Friday, January 22, once the ultimatum expires, we will take action and there will be a total shut down of the state. You are aware that both factions of Congress are on the same page in the issue because an injury to one is an injury to all. It was in that regard that a meeting of leaders of the factions in Abuja, set up a 6 man action committee on Imo which I am a member.
“We have it very clear that once the action starts, we will stop fuel and electricity supplies, banks and shops will be closed among others. ”
Recall that the Ayuba Wabba faction of NLC at its National Executive Council, NEC, meeting last Friday in Lagos, warned that Imo would be used as an example to others, saying “Congress resolved that any state governor who violates the sacred duty of regular payment of salaries, gratuities and pensions will incur the wrath of workers.Congress also resolved to mobilize to any state that retrenches workers because workers should not be made the scape goats of the downturn in the economy. The benefits of political employees are not touched. They are paid regular huge sums that are not even approved by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission.
“In line with the Congress’ philosophy of an injury to one is an injury to all, Congress also resolved to mobilize to Imo State to shut it down as a response to Governor Okorocha’s consistent anti-labour policies, impunity and retrenchment of workers, in spite of his promises to the leadership of the Congress that he would not take such decisions. Congress also resolved to take a national action in respect of Imo if necessary.
“Congress notes that Governor Okorocha has raised a private militia which he has armed to the teeth and they are at present inflicting injuries on innocent workers. Congress considers this as illegal and resolves to make a report to the IGP, warning that in the event that Okorocha violates the law by unleashing the militia again on workers, there would be consequences.”
•He must reduce cost of governance, create jobs, increase minimum wage – NLC
By Clifford Ndujihe, Victor Ahiuma-Young, Henry Umoru & Emman Ovuakporie
INSPITE of dwindling economic fortunes of the country occasioned by falling prices of crude oil, some lawmakers, leaders and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday, raised high hurdles for President Muhammadu Buhari to scale this year in order to improve on the well being of Nigerians.
Buhari and Osinbajo
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Anietie Okon said President Buhari should work towards keeping the country united and take charge of governance, if he desired peace for Nigeria.
Buhari must hold Nigeria together – Anietie Okon
“He should strive to hold the country together. The challenge posed by insecurity is daunting. Without substantial mileage on this subject, plans to enhance the economy will be snared. If the President desires peace and cohesion in the country, he should now take charge of direction of governance rather than the cavalier hands of approach, which has nurtured diverse sub-structures within his government and the APC engaged in a destructive competition for power and control with its own agenda in a war of attrition.”
“We shall together stand in faith and trust through the good, the tough, the thin and the triumphs. Together, we shall be triumphant and bask in our God’s glory and blessings through the New Year,” Anietie said.
He must recover our looted funds – Gbagi
Former Minister of State for Education, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, said the major task before President Buhari is recovering the country’s looted funds, which he said is over N30 trillion.
According to him if half of the funds is recovered the president would not need to borrow money to fund the 2016 N6.08 trillion budget.
Asked what he expect from the government in 2016, Gbagi said: ‘’First and foremost, Buhari told us he knows people of integrity, conclusively bring them together and let Nigerians receive back the loot of this country. If we get 80 per cent of the loot we will get over N33 trillion and won’t need to borrow. Nigerians are getting worried as to the true meaning of change. Much as I am held to have supported this government, we need to start putting human face when we call a spade a spade. There is so much secrecy in this government. A government that cannot explain itself to the electorate and the people that put it in power is in trouble. The mere fact that you are not talking is itself corruption. Let the people know what is happening before it is too late. It is urgent that we douse the secrecy by publishing the amount recovered and from whom.. There cannot be any sacred cow. Let us face governance and the rebirth of Nigeria.’’
We expect massive reduction in poverty, insecurity – Lawmakers
Members of the House of Representatives who spoke on issue said that they expected a massive reduction in poverty and an improved security network nationwide.
The lawmakers clearly stated that for Nigeria to achieve greater heights of excellence, security and drastic reduction in poverty to its barest minimum should be the fulcrum of the government’s programmes.
I expect improved security network – Leo Ogor
Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon Leo Ogor, PDP, Isoko Federal Constituency, Delta, said: “My prayer is that the present situation where Nigerians can’t go to their churches, mosques and markets without fear because of insecurity should be a thing of the past this New Year. Drastic reduction in poverty should be the cardinal focus of this administration as the hunger in the country is fast assuming a larger than life shape in the country. We are equally praying and hoping that the three arms of government must be truly independent to enable us crystallise our hard earned democracy in Nigeria.”
We expect a better police in 2016 – Nkem Abonta
Also, Hon Uzoma Nkem-Abonta, PDP, Ukwa East/West Federal Constituency, Abia, said: “My expectations for the year is that the laws of Appropriations are fully operational and a truly independent judiciary, legislature and executive working relationships come to bear. It is also my wish that better economic policies that could check mate insecurity, poverty, complete eradication of the reign of impunity in our great nation come to the fore.”
We want reduction in cost of governance, jobs, minimum wage review – NLC
On its part, the NLC, which said that 2015 was eventful and challenging for Nigerian workers in particular and Nigerians in general, said the government should improve on the fortunes of the citizenry by cutting cost of governance, creating more jobs and increasing minimum wage.
In a statement by its Factional President, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, the NLC said “given the massive support Nigerians gave President Buhari as a symbol and icon of change, they expectedly harbour tremendous expectations that his government will deliver on a number of areas and provide succour that has for decades eluded them. For the NLC as a vanguard organisation of the Nigerian working class, we wish to use the occasion of the New Year to highlight a few of these expectations and indeed also our fears.
“Instead of using our current economic reality as a basis for deep reflection on how to revive and rebuild our economy, our political elite have instead chosen to engage Nigeria workers in battle. This is symbolised in recent threats by the Nigerian Governors Forum to abandon the payment of the N18, 000 national minimum wage which was enacted into law in 2011, or in the alternative sack workers to join the army of the unemployed. Another threat against the poor masses of Nigeria is the vigorous advocacy by several representatives of the ruling class, their business elite collaborators, the World Bank and IMF, is that the Nigerian government should use the opportunity of the low price of crude oil to remove the subsidy on petroleum products. The argument, as we have heard over and over in the last 30-35 years, is that the money so freed from paying subsidy will be used to upgrade our infrastructure, provide educational and healthcare facilities among others.
“For us, the fall in the price of crude oil provides a unique opportunity for our country to go back to the basics; to diversify and make governments at every level to look critically at areas of its comparative advantage and concentrate efforts to make the difference in…
“In the same vein, our business elite and multinational companies are notorious for evading paying taxes. The federal and states revenue services need to step up identifying those that had not been paying taxes and get them to do so efficiently in the New Year. Government needs to impose property tax on the several hundreds of flashy estates and other structures in Abuja and several state capitals across the country. Some of these structures have laid unoccupied for years, making us to believe that they are properties developed with laundered funds…
“An issue of great concern to the working class in Nigeria today is that of the national minimum wage which is due for an upward review. The National Minimum Wage Act of 2011 established parameters for re-opening negotiations for a new national minimum wage, which is to be reviewed every five years. Such review would take into perspective the purchasing power of the naira and prevailing rate of inflation. As things are right now, with the sharp devaluation of the naira, the existing N18, 000 minimum wage equally declined in value, thereby worsening the cost of living for workers.
“It is however bothersome that the governors flew a reprehensible kite of minimum wage reduction in 2015. NLC did realise that this was a strategy to get us talking about retaining the paltry sum of N18,000 as minimum wage instead of calling for an increment. We had responded accordingly and made clear our resolve to fight against any attempt to reduce the minimum wage, which would be illegal, as would be efforts to curtail an upward review, in line with the provisions of the 2011 National Minimum Wage Act.
“It was therefore discomfiting that President Muhammadu Buhari appears to have given tacit support to the governors’ gambit, in the course of his maiden presidential media chat on December 30, 2015. Echoing the claim that states might not have the capacity to (continue to) pay a mere N18, 000 as minimum wage. For us in Congress, the position of the governors supported by the views of the Mr. President cannot be empirically defended. There is no state of the federation that cannot pay much more than N18, 000 as minimum wage if corruption and extravagance on the part of the public office holders are stamped out. If people are at the centre of states’ policies, which is of the essence for ensuring development, the focus should be on economic empowerment of the working people.
“This is also important for kick-starting the economy from its present comatose state by increasing aggregate effective demand, through their enhanced purchasing power. Further, experience has shown that there is no amount which the employers private entrepreneurs and particularly as government will not initially claim is too much.
“For example, during the 2-year negotiations which led to the 2011 National Minimum Wage Act, NLC and TUC demanded N52, 000 as minimum wage. Several states that said this was too much and they could not pay more than N32,000 would later still say that even N18,000 was too much. It equally has to be stressed at this point in time that the reviewing the national minimum wage upwards is a multidimensional necessity.
“The unemployment crisis in the country is assuming a frightening dimension as there is hardly any household in the country where there is not at least two to three long-term unemployed persons several years after they had completed their schooling. We will continue in the New Year to dialogue with government and its various agencies on how the government of President Buhari intends to actualise its programme or promise of creating three million jobs annually.’’
Other demands by NLC included vigorous fight against corruption at all strata of the Nigeria’s life, move toward 100 percent local refining of petroleum products and abandonment of planned fuel subsidy removal, ending insecurity in the country, full payment of pensions among others.
BENIN—THE Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in Edo State has commended the state governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, for the prompt payment of workers’ salaries, describing the state as lucky, unlike some other states in the country.
Chairman of NLC in the state, Emmanuel Ademokun, in a statement, described Oshiomhole’s seven years reign as a huge success, pointing out that the governor’s efforts in blocking leakages in the ministries had yielded fruit.
He appealed to governors of other states to emulate Governor Oshiomhole in the payment of salaries, saying, “It is very sad today that some of our colleagues went home for Christmas and New Year without getting their November and December salaries.
“That is why we sincerely thank our governor for his unflinching commitment in the payment of worker’s salaries up to date. Our governor has clearly shown that he is a man of distinction who sees workers as assets and not liabilities.”
It will be recalled that Edo workers went into jubilation on the 21st of December after they received alerts for the payment of December salaries from the state government.
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari yesterday said governors, the Presidency and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) should re-negotiate the 18,000 minimum wage.
Governor Abdulaziz Yari
He spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to him, dwindling oil prices had drastically affected the revenue generation of most states, which is adversely affecting their ability to pay workers.
The governor, however, denied making statements stopping the minimum wage.
He said: “Let me make it clear to Nigerians, Governors’ Forum is not the enemy of labour. Rather, we have been working together. But what we are saying, because not only Governor Wike but also my friend in the comradeship, Adams Oshiomhole, kicked against the decision.
“Although we never said that we are going to stop the N18,000 minimum wage, we are looking at the situation in the country and the global economy.
“What we said is that when the National Assembly enacted the law of paying N18,000 minimum wage, oil was about $118 per barrel and today oil is sold for $41 per barrel.
“So, if it continues, definitely, we will find it difficult to continue. We have to sit down with labour and see how we can review, either continue or downsizing or what we are going to do. We want to find a solution because we have to be realistic that we have so many things to touch. There is infrastructure deficit, there is need for security, there are other things, such as social lives of our people and the nation as a state.
“The receipt from federation account, some people received N400 million, N500 million. Some others received N55 million, two digits. And there are other issues. Not even the salary, their pension is over a billion. So, how can we continue borrowing and servicing the service aspect of our expenditure, or overhead? How can we do that?
“We are telling the public that we are planning to sit down with the President and his team and the governors as a team and the experts to come out with the way forward and how we are going to handle the poor state of the economy.
“But what we have on ground now will not be realistic if it continues the way it is without having other sources from the economy and still relying on oil that is being sold for $118 dollar per barrel and now down to $41 and think that we can continue behaving or misbehaving the way we are doing, if there is anything like that.
“Therefore we are saying that we should tighten our belts. Sometime definitely, we should sit down and come out of it to find a way we are going to do it realistically or otherwise.”
On the position taken by Governors Adams Oshiomole and Nyesom Wike of Edo and Rivers states, Yari said the states were rich with industries that are raising their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
He said: “I can understand why the governor of Rivers state is speaking the way he is speaking. He thinks every place is Rivers. It is not.”
LAGOS — THE Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday warned that attempts by the governors through the Governors’ Forum to renege on the N18,000 national minimum wage signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan in March 2011, was an open declaration of war against the Nigerian workers.
Deputy President, Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Issa Aremu (NLC)
Congress equally told President Muhammadu Buhari to prepare to receive the proposal for the review of the minimum wage as contained in the agreement, noting that the proposal was delayed because the NLC wanted to give the government time to settle down before coming up with the demand.
While insisting that the ability to pay even above the wage was not the problem of the economy, NLC recalled that the 2011 national minimum wage came into existence after almost two years of agitation and eventual negotiation by the tripartite of government (represented by the federal and state governments), the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, NECA, representing other employers (in the private sector) and organized Labour.
NLC, in a statement by its factional President, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, told the governors to prepare for war and organised labour would have no alternative than to mobilize to respond appropriately to this act of aggression by the political class on workers’ welfare.
The statement read in part: “The Nigeria Labour Congress is shocked by the statement credited to the chairman of the Governors Forum, Governor Abdulaziz Yari, that the N18,000 national minimum wage promulgated into law in 2011 was no longer sustainable because of the fall in the price of crude oil. The governor, who was speaking on behalf of his colleagues at the end of a meeting of the forum, also claimed that the national minimum wage was ‘imposed’.
“We wish to make it abundantly clear that this attempt to reverse the national minimum wage is a declaration of war against the working people of this country, and we would have no alternative than to mobilize to respond to this act of aggression by the political class on our welfare.
“For us in the Nigeria Labour Congress, we know as a fact that ability to pay minimum wages is not the problem of the economy. What is the problem for states and other tiers of government is the amount many political office holders and their unproductive aides take away as wages. For the private sector, the greed to accumulate more and more profit is also always a motivating factor to keep wages down.
“Similarly, we have been in the forefront of campaigning that the cost of governance at all levels needs to be drastically cut down, to free enough resources for development. The hundreds of billions of Naira our public office holders continue to filter away in the name of governance is what is not sustainable.
“For instance, the annual cost to the public purse of governors ‘security votes’ which is an unaccountable drain on the public resources, is worth several thousands of minimum wages per state. Secondly, Nigerians who have the means to travel by air would recall that in the last 6-10 years, majority of, if not all our governors, no longer use commercial airline regular flights as a means of transportation from one place to another. They now have ‘official’ aircrafts and helicopters, which they maintain at huge costs to the state treasury.
“Their less ‘fortunate’ counterparts charter aircrafts and helicopters at the cost of millions of Naira to tax payers to attend any manner of functions from marriages to child naming ceremonies.
“States are in the poor financial state they are in largely on the developmental choices they have made; largely on the basis of priorities they have chosen which has nothing to do with the public good. Workers salaries cannot be sacrificed on the altar of challenges of the economy which is not the making of workers. It has never happened in the history of our country, and it will not be said that it is during our leadership of the Nigerian labour movement that this calamity was allowed to happen to Nigerian workers.
“Governors and other political office holders were not elected and/or appointed to only go and share proceeds from crude oil and petroleum products sales monthly in Abuja. Any one putting himself or herself out to serve does so on the assumption that he or she have intellect above the average which would be leveraged to provide good and responsive governance to the rest of the populace.
“In the 60’s when Nigeria did not have oil as the main source of our revenue, our fore bearers raised funds via efficient taxes, agricultural produce and other forms of internally generated revenue to provide development and pay living wages to the workers. Our current crop of leaders, who put themselves up for election to high government positions, must deliver by paying the working masses their due pay. This is not negotiable.
“As early as May 2015, we gave notice that the N18,000 National Minimum Wage was due for review, and that we would be submitting a new proposal once the incoming government settled down. We have been patient and waited for the President Buhari government to appoint ministers and thus have full compliments of officers to run the government.
“With the recent devaluation of the Naira, and the attendant increase in inflation and cost of living, even without the last minimum wage Act reaching the mandatory five years when it is due for review, we would have been justified to request for review.
“Now the five years is here – we are at the end of 2015, and with the cost of living being so high, we will soon table our new minimum wage demand to the federal government. If the recent statement by the Governors Forum is intended to manoeuvre them away from addressing this imperative, then it is bound to fail as we are ready to do battle to raise the living standard of the Nigerian working people.”
THE Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Edo State, Comrade Emmanuel Ademokun and his Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) counterpart in the state, Mr Shaka Otoide, were at the weekend arrested by security agents for their roles in the wilful destruction of property belonging to one Mrs Rose Nweke.
Police Inspector General, Solomon Arase
The duo were said to have removed the roof of Mrs Nweke’s shop located within the premises of the Civil Service Club, located at GRA, Benin City.
The Civil Service club is being managed by the NLC.
It was gathered that comrades Ademokun and Otoide were picked up last Friday by officers of the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Benin after Mrs Nweke brought charges of wilful destruction of property against them.
Counsel to Mrs Nweke, Olayiwola Afolabi, said the duo removed the roof of his client’s shop and in the process destroyed items such as freezers, microwave oven and foodstuffs.
When contacted, Mrs Nweke said her N200,000 per annum rent expired last September and that it was barely two months to the three-month quit notice served her by the management of the Civil Service Club when her shop was damaged.
She noted that the value of the property she lost was being put together for the management of the Civil Service Club to pay, adding that the matter will go to court if her things were not replaced.
The Commissioner of Police in Edo State, Mr Chris Ezike, also noted that Comrade Ademokun and his NJC counterpart took the laws into their hands, hence their arrest.
Nigerian workers, under the umbrellas of the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, have asked the President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, to vacate his office pending the determination of his case at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Bukola Saraki
The workers, who spoke across the country, said although Saraki is still on trial and has not been found guilty of the allegations against him, it is morally right for him to vacate his office as Senate President to defend himself.
The Office of the Attorney General of the Federation is prosecuting Saraki for alleged false declaration of his assets at the Code of Conduct Bureau.
Saraki had, last Tuesday, stepped into the dock at the CCT in Abuja, where he was arraigned for false assets declaration charges.
He pleaded not guilty to all the 13 charges slammed on him by the CCB and his trial has been scheduled to hold on October 21, 22 and 23.
Leaders of the NLC and the TUC, who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH on Saturday, said it had become necessary for Saraki to step aside from Senate presidency to answer the charges preferred against him.
Organised labour had on, September 10, 2015, held nationwide protests against corruption, while seeking death penalty for public treasury looters.
Labour said it was only by killing looters that the anti-corruption crusade being championed by President Muhammadu Buhari could succeed.
President of the TUC, Mr. Bobboi Bala, in an interview with one of our correspondents, said Saraki has a moral burden to resign.
He said, “Resignation is a moral burden on people. But if somebody feels that he will carry his cross, go to the courts and try to exonerate himself, he should be given the opportunity. But it would be too bad if at the end of the day, he is found guilty. It does not speak well of public office holders.
“In other climes, as soon as such things happen, people tender their letters of resignation. Obviously, it is a moral burden on him. We hope all politicians will begin to know that no matter how highly placed they are, one day, they will definitely have to account for their stewardship.”
Several chapters of the NLC and the TUC across the states also asked for Saraki’s resignation on Saturday.
The Chairman, TUC, Ogun State, Mr. Olubunmi Fajobi, told one of our correspondents that if it were in a civilised clime, the Senate President would have stepped aside to allow for free and fair trial.
He said, “As it were, the Senate President is sitting on a delicate seat. If it were a civilised society, he would have stepped aside to allow for a fair trial, so that he won’t allow his official position to influence the decision of the tribunal.”
Also, the Ekiti State Chairman of the NLC, Mr. Raymond Adesanmi, advised Saraki to step down from office.
He said, “If it were in other climes, he would have resigned. My advice for him would be to step down as the Senate President to answer the charges against him. If at the end of the day he is not found guilty, he could return to his position.”
Adesanmi’s TUC counterpart in Ekiti, Mr. Adesoye Adedayo, corroborated him.
He said, “Although the case against him has political undertone, I would advise him to resign to prove his innocence.”
In Cross River State, the Chairman of the TUC, Mr. Clarkson Otu, who noted that labour unions had yet to meet to take a definite position on Saraki’s trial, said the Senate President should resign his position.
He said, “This whole thing is politics. The said irregularities allegedly discovered in Sariki’s assets declaration are issues before the CCT, but having got himself involved in this controversy, he should quit as senate president based on moral grounds.
“If he does not quit, he will keep battling to retain that position. This is my personal view and not that of the TUC.”
The factional Chairman of the NLC in Delta State, Mr. Williams Akporeha, the state chapter of the union was in support of Saraki’s resignation.
“We are saying that he should step aside because he is facing trial that borders on allegations of fraud and misinformation. He should resign on a clean slate instead of his continued stay in office in shameless aberration,” he said.
In the same vein, Chairman of the TUC in Delta, Mr. Myke Arinze, said, “Senator Saraki should resign and set the record straight because he cannot be facing trial and be dictating as Senate President.”
CNPP, CODER, SERAP, others ask Senate President to quit
Second Republic Governor of old Kaduna State and Chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, Mr. Balarabe Musa, in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH on Saturday, also urged Saraki to step down as Senate President as a show of respect for his office.
Musa said, “First of all, it depends on his conscience. If he knows that the allegations against him have anything bordering on genuineness and if he knows that he has not done anything above board, he should succumb to his conscience.
“In honour of the institution he represents, it is therefore best for him to resign in order not to undermine the position of the judge.
“If he knows that there are elements of truth in the allegations against him, he should not cost the government so much in court and thereby undermine the integrity of the bench; he should just resign. He is still young; he still has a lot of opportunities.”
Also, the Coalition against Corrupt Leaders called for Saraki’s resignation.
The Executive Chairman, CACOL, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said, “He should resign for now. If he is found to be innocent, then Nigerians would have reason to apologise to him and his dignity will be restored. If he continues to hold on to power, he is likely to lose more dignity; nobody will respect him for doing so.”
Similarly, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project described Nigeria as a peculiar place, where issues of probity, integrity and adherence to the rule of law would be questioned and politicians would continue to remain in public office “as if those things don’t matter.”
According to the Executive Director of SERAP, Adetokunbo Mumuni, in saner climes, when public figures would have such burden on them, the first thing to do would be to get off the seat to clear their name by virtue of the rule of law and due process.
Mumuni said, “If people are saying he should resign, I also support that move because as the number three man in Nigeria, he has not set a very good example. It is not a question of ‘If I was not declared senate president, nobody will remember what I did 10 years ago.’ Why didn’t he declare his assets when he was governor?
“If we are talking about equity, then we must be able to come to equity with clean hands. That is the way I see it. I have never been a subscriber to the idea of witch-hunting. Why can’t they just follow the law? The question of witch-hunting, to me, is neither here nor there. Did they comply with the law? I don’t believe in the idea that they have enemies somewhere.
“Why shouldn’t we do what is needful and proper and we now start talking about witch-hunting? Matters of criminal infraction don’t have limitations. I have never seen a defence to an infraction of law where one would say, ‘Some people were not dealt with, so I cannot be dealt with.’”
Also, the Convener, Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, faulted those who call Saraki’s trial a witch-hunt. He said the Senate President should resign.
He said, “I believe it will be good for the Senate and the country – for political responsibility – for Bukola Saraki to resign. Unless that is done, his political influence will interfere in the process.”
In the same vein, the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reform said even though Saraki remained innocent until the tribunal finds him guilty, it had become morally necessary for the Senate President to resign from office.
Convener of CODER, Chief Ayo Opadokun, who was the General Secretary of the National Democratic Coalition and an ex-Secretary-General of the Afenifere, said it was not possible for all lawbreakers in the country to be tried at once. He said, “They have to be picked one by one.”
He said although other lawmakers in the National Assembly might have committed similar offences on assets declaration, Saraki’s trial would serve as a good lesson to others.
Opadokun said, “Saraki’s trial has more fundamental dimension because of the fact that someone crookedly emerged as leader of the Nigerian legislature and he has been charged for false declaration (of assets), which is a criminal offence and which carries significant punishment fashioned by the Nigerian criminal law system.
“He should resign to face the charges against him. He should have resigned long ago.”
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said it will partner the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to monitor the disbursement and use of the N338 billion bailout funds in 27 states.
Its President, Comrade Ayuba bailout Wabba, in a statement in Abuja, said he had directed councils in the benefiting states to be on the alert.
The congress praised the commission for ensuring the return of about N1 billion being public funds criminally diverted by some corrupt officials of the Federal Ministry of Environment and the Federal Pay Office.
Wabba said the congress was in agreement with the commission that the painful days of the public “running after funds after appropriation” are over.
Wabba urged the relevant ministries and agencies of government to “ensure that the recovered looted funds were properly channelled to the activities they are meant for.”
Osun workers can finally smile as the state government on Wednesday made the decision to commence the payment of six months arrears and payment of monies deducted from workers salaries.
Aregbesola
The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC and Osun government signed a fresh Memorandum of Understanding to disturse the money for the purpose it was requested which reduced the tension and speculation generated by the planned diversion of the N34.988 bailout fund received from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Chairman of Osun Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Jacob Adekomi commended Governor Rauf Aregbesola for putting the bailout loan for the backlog of workers salaries.
He said this while addressing journalists after a meeting with representative of government on the disbursement at the Government House in Osogbo.
Adekomi denied having problem or doubt about whether the government will spend the money on its right purpose as speculated in some quarters.
He said that NLC was aware that the money was untouched but was meeting with the government on the modalities of how it will be disbursed based on the MoU signed in July, 2015 between both parties.
According to Adekomi, “In order to ensure sustainability of payment of salaries in the state of Osun, the first disbursement from the bailout loan should cover the payment of outstanding September and December 2014 deductions, balance of January and February salaries and full payment of March, April and May 2015 salaries for state government workers.
“That workers in the employment of Local government and Primary school teachers be paid their first installment out of the bailout loan to cover the payment of balance of March and April, 2015 salaries as well as full payment of May and June, 2015 salaries.
“That state pensioners be paid balance of December, 2014 as well as January, February and March 2015 pensions while their counterparts in the Local Government and primary schools be paid up to June 2015.”
The Peoples Democratic Parties in the state had raised alarm that Aregbesola had paid N20m to a contractor out of the N34.988m bailout fund with the balance deposited in a fixed account.
They also accused Aregbesola of giving conditions for workers before paying their salaries, adding that the idea is to use the screening to delay payment so that the money deposited in the account can reach maturity.
The Nigeria Labour Congress in Osun State on Thursday staged an anti-corruption rally in Osogbo, the state capital, asking for support for President Muhammadu Buhari in his war against corruption.
Deputy President, Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Issa Aremu (NLC)
The chairman of the NLC in the state, Mr. Jacob Adekomi, who led the protest, which started at the House of Assembly, said non payment of salaries of workers by some governors was a corrupt act.
He said, “Non-payment of workers’ salaries has been attributed to corrupt practices of state governors, who have gone into heavy borrowing from the banks to carry out huge projects they clearly have no capacity for and use them as conduit pipes to siphon public funds into personal pockets.”
He said the unrealistic minimum wage and non-payment of the salaries had made life unbearable for many workers.
The NLC boss urged Buhari to ensure the recovery of funds looted by office holders, saying this would give him an opportunity to jump-start the nation’s economy.
Adekomi stated that it was unfortunate that some political office holders were far richer than their constituencies and states while the masses were languishing in penury.
The labour leader added that virtually all infrastructure in the country were in deplorable condition, adding that Nigerian refineries must work to stop importation of refined products.
According to him, Nigeria must put an end to corruption in public places to put the nation on the path of development and progress which its founding fathers charted for it at independence.
The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) earned N162 billion and spent N160 billion in one year, a governor alleged yesterday.
Oshiomhole
Another revenue generating agency failed to remit a dime to the Federation Account from the taxes it collected, claiming that what it generated was not enough to fund its operations, Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole said.
He spoke at the eighth quadrennial delegates conference of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Abuja.
Also at the occasion, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba cautioned members of the National Peace Committee not to be an obstacle to the fight against corruption and recovery of stolen funds from former public officers.
Oshiomhole, who is the Chairman of the committee set up by the National Economic Council (NEC) to investigate revenue generating agencies, also hit at members of the National Peace Committee and other Nigerians for asking President Muhammadu Buhari not to investigate former President Goodluck Jonathan because he conceded defeat and handed over power.
He said: “Last week, somebody told us and this was an official report, that in one federal agency, the Nigeria Port Authority, admitted to collecting N162 billion in one year and spent N160 billion, remitting only N2 billion to the Federation Account.
“Is that Justice? Can you have peace in the face of this kind of abuse? We listened to some others and they have huge number as to what they earned, but how much of this did you remit?
“In Europe and other places, government is run on taxes, but when the tax collector consumes what he collects, will there be peace? Some of those who want to maintain the peace must ensure that peace is a product of justice. The real victims when power is abused are the ordinary people.
“This is the time for the NLC to initiate policies and suggestions to the Federal government on how to ensure that government policies are job-based and job-driven, that Nigeria’s economic growth is job-led growth and not jobless growth”.
He told the delegates and guests including President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, (NUJ) Waheed Odusile that: “Buhari is resolved that by whatever guise anybody will come, he is going to fight on the popular mandate that Nigeria conferred on him. Organised labour must be clear.
“We must not amplify the fact that the other man handed over and has saved the nation from crisis. Yes, he did, but are we actually saying that the power to vacate does not rest on the Nigeria voters and that if the man said he was not going to go, he had a choice to stay. That was not a choice. The choice he had was between leaving the way he left or ending up like former Ivoirien President Laurent Gbabo in the Hague.
“The world has changed that no dictator today can claim to be too powerful and hold his nation to ransom. When you overpower your nation, you cannot over power the international community.
“So, those who want Nigerians to go on their knees thanking President Jonathan for conceding defeat are over dramatising it because he is not the founder of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He is a beneficiary.
“He is not a traditional ruler and did not become a king by reason of his birth. If those who were military government who took power by force of arms were forced to vacate, how can we talk of a man who was a product of our laws.
“I want to appeal to those who are exaggerating this point, that we went through an election and the man who lost conceded defeat, We refuse to shut up. If they ask you to shut up, you should refuse to shut up.
“When workers were sacked because they turned the searchlight on you, saying the problem isn’t the civil service, you now know that the dollars picketed by one person is far much more than the total wage bill of all the workers working for the Federal, government and the 36 states of the federation. So, labour cannot afford to be silent.
“All of a sudden, I hear people talking about witch hunting. Where I come from, when a witch is alleged to have killed somebody, in a typical rural Nigeria, the villagers go after the witch.
“So, what is wrong in going after the witch if it has actually caused a problem for the community? So, witches are meant to be hunted and not to be celebrated. So, people should stop trying to confuse the President and make it look as if he is the problem when he is just trying to lay a foundation.
“We should advise members of the National Peace Committee to include justice because peace is a product of justice. So, for us to have peace there must be justice otherwise, we are going to have grave yard peace and there can be no justice if one person can pocket $6billion.
Some members of the committee are: Former Head of State Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, John Cardinal Onaiyekan and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) President Ayo Oritsejafor
“The time to engage is now. There is the talk of the delay in appointing minister. If rushing to make decisions deliver nation states, Nigeria would have been like heaven. What matters is not the haste with which you make decisions, but the quality of the decision you eventually arrive at. It is the quality of your cook that determines the quality of your soup.
“So, if you rush to hire your cook because you are hungry, don’t complain when he gives you erosion pot in the name of soup. Let it be clear especially in the trade union movement that ministers are not the heart of governance.
“What is the heart of governance is the civil service. If the civil service is competent and productive, with initiative, the fact that there is no minister in the ministry does not mean the ministry is grounded.
“As you can see under two months, without minister of energy, power has stabilised. The only thing Buhari has invested is the power of integrity. Is it minister we need or action? The merchants of confusion who benefit from crisis appeared to have hijacked the debate.”
The NLC president said the Congress will stand solidly behind the President in his quest to recover all stolen monies and prosecute all those found to have stolen such monies.
“Those stolen monies must be retrieved and offenders prosecuted and punished for their crimes against the Nigerian people”
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says the decision by President Muhammadu Buhari and his Vice, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to take 50 percent salaries cut was not enough, the nation’s leaders should imbibe the doctrine of selfless services as a sign of the change.
Deputy President of the Joe Ajaero-led faction of NLC, Mr. Issa Aremu said this at a colloquium to mark the 10th anniversary of the Amilcar Cabral Ideological School, ACIS, in Lagos. According to him, it is debatable if the President, who paid for nothing from toothpick to presidential jets, needed millions of naira as salaries.
“The best way to honour Cabral is to call on African leaders to selflessly serve their peoples,” Aremu, who is also the General Secretary, National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, said.
“There is nowhere with as many self-serving leaders like Nigeria.
“The critical issue is bridging the widening wage gap. We must also stop multiple remunerations for few ruling elite, while legitimate pay is denied the workers.”
The Nigeria Labour Congress on Sunday cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari against oil subsidy removal and further devaluation of the nation’s currency being canvassed in some quarters.
Deputy President, Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Issa Aremu (NLC)
Specifically, it said organised labour would resist any attempt to further devalue the naira.
The Deputy National President of the NLC, Alhaji Issa Aremu, in a statement in Kaduna on Sunday, noted that “what the country needs now is good governance, not subsidy removal as being canvassed in some quarters.”
He said President Buhari should go beyond subsidy removal by fixing the existing refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna.
According to the labour leader, the National Assembly should hasten the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill.
He also said NLC was of the opinion that the re-organisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, stoppage of crude oil theft and creation of employment would help the nation than removal of oil subsidy.
Aremu said, “As we have seen with the good management of fertilizer subsidy in the last dispensation under former Agriculture Minister, Dr. Adesina Akinwunmi, there is nothing inherently bad with subsidy.
“The challenge of today more than ever before is domestic production of petroleum instead of unsustainable wasteful importation of the products.
“The new administration should reject the one-cap-fits-all policy dictate. No substitute to good governance and employment generation.
“The actions that Nigerians are looking forward to are urgent fixing of the existing refineries, passage of PIB, job creation and re-organisation and repositioning of the NNPC.”
Aremu described the proposed removal of oil subsidy and the devaluation of the naira as “policy dictatorship.”
He added, “This administration must resist the new emerging discordant voices pushing for twin-evil policies of so-called oil subsidy removal and further devaluation of the naira.”
The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, on Friday in Abuja vowed to hold the incoming Muhammadu Buhari-led government accountable in respect of his party’s promises to Nigerians and workers in particular.
Buhari and Osinbajo
Mr. Buhari was elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The unions made the vow at the 2015 May Day celebration with the theme: “The Working Class, Democratic Consolidation and Economic Revival: Charting the Way to National Rebirth’’.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, urged the incoming administration to revive the Ajaokuta Steel complex, saying the plant was conceived to be the cornerstone of Nigeria’s industrialisation programme.
“Unfortunately, our political class has refused to accept the simple truth that no country can truly industrialise without iron and steel industry.
“The fate of Aladja, Osogbo, Jos and Katsina steel rolling mills post-privatization is too grim to recall here,” Mr. Wabba said.
Mr. Wabba advised the government which is to be inaugurated on May 29, to view development from the prism of tapping into the abundant economic potential offered by the entrepreneurial drive of Nigerians.
He said that resources were locked up in the soil and that any country “subserviently” reliant on importation, was only exporting jobs.
While urging the president-elect to pay attention to agriculture as it has the capacity to employ millions of Nigerians, Mr. Wabba said the government must also lead the way by making farming attractive to young people through the provision of agricultural inputs, equipment and other relevant infrastructure.
“There is also the need to establish a strong linkage between different sectors of our economy, especially with regard to promoting industrialisation and manufacturing.
“This will focus on turning our agricultural products and other natural resources into quality semi-processed and fully processed goods.’’
On the issue of unemployment, he noted that the incoming administration had promised to create three million jobs yearly.
“Our leadership will take up all levels of government on their commitment to job creation and will not relent till we see tangible results on these scores,” he said.
He noted that the prevailing economic crunch and the devaluation of the naira has eroded the purchasing power of the Nigerian worker.
“The National Minimum Wage of N18, 000 that was negotiated in 2010 is clearly no longer of any meaningful economic value to workers.
“The five-year circle for periodic review of the National Minimum Wage is at hand.
“We wish to use this May Day celebration to give formal notice that we shall table a request for a new minimum wage for consideration soon after the new administration is sworn in,” he said.
The NLC president advised state governments and other employers of labour yet to discharge their obligations under the current national minimum wage regime to do so immediately as they were breaking the law by not complying with the provisions of the 2011 National Minimum Wage Act.
On his part, Bobboi Kaigama, the President of TUC, called the attention of the incoming government in the areas of economy, national security, anti-corruption war, national unity and cohesion, among others.
Mr. Kaigama said if the president-elect must succeed, his administration must be quick to reverse the present ratio between capital and recurrent expenditure.
“This should be done in such a way that 60 per cent of our total annual revenue projections would be dedicated to the enhancement of social infrastructure and human capital development.’’
He said the incoming government must fashion out effective ways of checking the wastage of the resources, curtailing theft in the oil sector, money laundering, over-invoicing and double-invoicing of contracts, dumping of foreign goods and excessive borrowing among others.
“We charge the incoming government to chart long-term goals but focus on the implementation of short-term and medium-term goals.’’
President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday urged Nigerians to brace up for the harsh economic realities in the country occasioned by the recent fall in the price of oil at the international market, saying that industrial relationship can only be more cordial, if democracy was nurtured to grow.
The President, represented by the Minister of labour, Sen. Joel Danlamilkenya, spoke while addressing workers during yesterday’s May Day celebrations.
Jonathan pointed out that the present harsh economic realities were so glaring that the workers cannot afford to ignore them in their engagements with government and advised them to be realistic with their demands.
“It is in this circumstance that the theme of this year’s Workers’ Day becomes more germane for positive engagement between government and labour. It is therefore proper to celebrate workers because of the critical role they play in the society. May Day confers us the opportunity to reflect on the inherent reality we are being confronted with due to scarce resources.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC, have a duty to play, charting a way forward for continued development and growth of Nigeria.’’
Jonathan then commended both the NLC and the TUC, for their various contributions in the sustenance of the nation’s development and democracy, describing them as the gateway to the nation development.
“The workers, apart from their immense contributions, have in no small ways, made contributions towards the achievement of democracy through the enhancement of the processes and participation. Over these years, the workers have deepened their voice and government had attended to them. There is a new initiative being championed by the Ministry of Labour and Productivity aimed at broadening industrial and labour harmony and trade unionism. This development will no doubt engender the spirit of patriotism, national consciousness, occasioned by natural justice and reasoning.
“For us, the labour movement is central to national productivity and development, and as such have a critical role to play in chatting a way forward for continued development and productivity and in settling labour disputes.
“I have set a mechanism in place to further deepen government and labour relations. Let us use this opportunity to make a commitment for national development and rebirth. Attainment of national vision will not be possible without the commitment, work and participation of Nigerian workers. It is a joint effort. I look forward to seeing a strong and vibrant federation under the new leadership of labour. I urge them to ensure workers welfare and also, working constructively for the transformation of Nigeria.”
FCT allocates over 300 plots of land to workers – FCT Minister
In his valedictory address, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Sen. Bala Mohammed, said that in keeping with the obligation of the commitment FCT to workers, the authority had in the course of his tenure allocated over 300 plots of land to long service award and deserving officers in the FCT and had gone ahead to institutionalise the award as overall incentive to deserving officers who have served the nation meritoriously.
According to him, the gesture was also in acknowledgment of the commitment of the President Jonathan’s administration for workers welfare under the transformation agenda.
In addition to that, he said several policies had been approved to improve workers welfare and economy in general, noting that the nationwide housing scheme, which had commenced in Lugbe and various part of the country remained the flagship of the present administration’s commitment to workers welfare.
The scheme, he said, was aimed at ensuring adequate housing for workers, not only in the FCT but across the federation.
According to him, the scheme is a collaborative venture between the Federal government, NLC and TUC, and designed for workers to become eventual owners of the houses through their rents.
On job creation, Mohammed said the present administration had in various way opened job creation avenues through incentives such as the SURE-P and various infrastructural projects, which he said had generated employment for teaming youths.
As a worker friendly administration, he stated that his administration had constituted a workers welfare committee charged with the mandate of assuaging the pains and sufferings of workers engaged in hazardous activities.
His words: “Every nation that strives for greatness must give pride and dignity to workers. As we gather here today, I will like to commend the contribution of NLC, TUC in the stability of our nation by steering the leadership of the nation.’’
While promising to leave behind an arrears free administration, he assured that the administration would ensure the opening of alternative corridors like Abuja-Nyanya and Karishi-Apo roads to ease the suffering of residents before the end the current administration.
RATAWOA demands improved welfare
Earlier, the Deputy National President of Radio and Television Workers Association, RATAWOA, Comrade Sunday Olujetro, had lamented the poor salary and welfare package for media workers across the country, describing it as injustice.
Olujetro said RATAWOA was determined to fight for the rights and interest of its members until the injustice being meted to them were addressed.
He wondered why the media workers would be paid so poorly compared to their counterparts in most of the public institutions like CBN, FIRS and NNPC, a trend he said was in the opposite in the 1970s.
“We feel very bad that we are so poorly paid today because we were told that before the Udoji’s report in 1975 that workers in CBN resigned their appointments and joined the media because the media paid higher than the CBN workers but today, the reverse is the case.
“You will see workers in CBN, NNPC, FIRS earning more than our people but we have put our case in place with those in charge of salaries and wages in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Information.
Our salaries can’t take us home, and we can’t do anything with it. A lot of workers are on personal loans; as a result of this situation every pay day is a sad day for workers.
“ The incoming President can’t talk about cutting salaries. We believe he was talking about political office holders not about the workers because right now, what the workers are taking cannot take them home. So, he can’t do that, if he ventures do that, then we will be in separate lanes,” he said.
The Governor of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, has called on the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress to take steps to ensure that state governors pay their states workers salary arrears before the handover date of May 29.
He said the leaders of the labour movement would be seen to be guilty of complicity if they fail to ensure that the workers are paid their salaries before the exit of the governors.
Oshiomhole, who added that Edo State had paid salaries of its workers up to date, made the comment while paying a courtesy call on the President of the NLC, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, in Abuja on Tuesday.
The governor, a former President of the NLC, urged the leaders of the labour centre to make sure that the governors coughed out what they owed the Nigerian worker either in cash or in assets before handing over to their successor later this month.
He said the incoming governors were not likely to clear that backlog of arrears as they would be lamenting the huge debt burden inherited from their predecessors and would be pleading for time to pay the arrears.
He said, “In Edo today, we are one of the very few states that are not in arrears and we will not be in arrears. Even this salary of April, it would be paid before the last working day of April even though my commissioner told me yesterday that the Federal Government has again defaulted in remitting in full what accrues to the federation account.
“Last month, we got less than N1.5bn less. This month we are getting 10 per cent less than we got even last month.
“So, that is why I told the NLC President that instead of quarrelling about who should be the President, this is not a President that would be awarding contracts; you should unite to ensure that workers GET PAIDbecause if you allow these governors to leave office on May 29 with arrears of salaries, you will be guilty of conspiracy against the workers and you are accessories after the fact of non-payment of wages.
THE President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Dr. Ayuba Wabba, has emphasised that the N18,000 minimum wage is no longer realistic, considering the nation’s economic situation.
Wabba, who spoke at his maiden news conference in Abuja yesterday, noted that the negative impact of the falling global price of crude oil at the international market on the country’s economy made it imperative to review the minimum wage.
He said with the devaluation of the Naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the purchasing power of the average worker had reduced.
Wabba added that in the face of dwindling economic fortunes, the labour movement would dialogue with the Federal Government and other employers of labour to protect the workers’ interest.
He assured Nigerians that despite the challenges associated with the conduct of the elections, the union would remain one indivisible family.
His leadership, he said, would use direct and indirect means to resolve the disagreement arising from the the election, stressing that the congress was bigger than any individual or group.
Dismissing the special delegates’ conference called by some aggrieved members, the NLC president said the only organ of the congress constitutionally empowered to call for a delegates’ conference is the National Executive Council, adding: “That body duly called for a delegates’ conference, which had just elected a new leadership for the congress”.
His words: “We are going to use both direct and indirect approach to approach the aggrieved parties to reconcile. What I mean is that the present leadership will try and meet them individually and collectively to see reasons beyond personal interest and to look at the organisation as the ultimate.
“We have had such situations in the past and we have been able to resolve them. I think we must give peace a chance. That is why I said we have already extended a hand of fellowship to everybody and, therefore, we are looking ahead to see how we can resolve the issues.
“Before the elections were to proceed, the veterans intervened and we sat down in this hall to look at preliminary issues that contestants raised and the issues were addressed.
“A decision was also made that whatever the outcome, everybody is going to abide by it.
“We made those commitments before the veterans in this hall on the day of the election and so, I am certain that they will play a significant role. Those are the two areas I think will be important for us to use in reaching out to them. We also have time-tested procedures in resolving conflicts and disputes. We will approach the issues with an open mind so that we can move forward.
“As far as I am concerned, the only organ that can convene a delegate conference in accordance with the constitution is the National Executive Council. That organ has convened a conference, a National Returning Officer was appointed and the results were declared in public. Everything about the election is on record and so, we must also accept the outcome.
“I think that the most important thing is to continue to extend our hand of fellowship to them and we stand on the constitutional provision. The first President of NLC was the person that administered the oath of office, which is an indication that they believed in the process because they were there throughout the night, watching the proceeding.
“We don’t believe there will be two leadership because our believe is that we should be able to unite and look at the issues that affect the workers and not personal interest.
“Although there has been a lot of challenges, it has been a credible process that all of us can attest to. But for me, the most important thing is how we can address the mounting challenges facing the workers because the interest of workers should be paramount and that should guide our engagements. And from what we have heard from all over the country, our members are also satisfied.”
Wabba assured subscribers of the NLC housing projects that his leadership would do everything possible to refund their money, adding that the congress was aware that they subscribed to the project because of the involvement of the NLC.
He added: “You are aware that there are two signatories to the account and one of the signatories is at large. The process of refund has been completed, but he has refused to come and sign. Already, he has been declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).
“What we want the court to do, having been declared wanted, is to make an order empowering the NLC to refund everybody through the process of e-payment since it was mutually agreed between us and the subscribers. We want the court to issue that order.
“So, the assurance I want to give is that this is a continuous process and NLC is an institution and once decisions are made, every leader that emerges is obliged to carry out those decisions and instructions. So, we will go ahead and make sure that every worker is refunded.”
The National Delegates Conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress ended in crisis on Thursday as participants failed to elect a new president to succeed Abdulwahed Omar.
President of the NLC, Mr. Abdulwahed Omar
The election was progressing smoothly until some discrepancies were observed in the ballot papers.
The discovery led to allegations that culminated in fisticuffs and throwing of chairs at each other by some of the delegates at the International Conference Centre, the venue of the conference in Abuja.
One of our correspondents gathered that some of the delegates felt that the ballot papers were deliberately printed to facilitate the rigging of the election in favour of one of the candidates.
The candidates are the NLC current National Treasurer, Ayuba Wabba; the Deputy President, Joe Ajaero, and the President, Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Achese Igwe who later stepped down.
Some of the ballot papers, according to some of the delegates, had Wabba’s name in three places and Ajaero in two places. Others which did not have Ajaeros name on them also had no serial numbers.
The delegates from Igwe’s constituency, NUPENG, were said to have called attention to the discrepancies in the ballot papers.
When the argument over the issue degenerated, some of the delegates loyal to either Wabba or Ajaero, started hauling chairs at each other, thereby causing pandemonium at the venue. Others seized and destroyed the ballot boxes.
Wabba seemed to have a brighter chance of being elected the next President of the congress until Tuesday when Igwe, who is also the NUPENG President, stepped down and declared support for Ajaero.
Delegates loyal to Ajaero are of the view that the organisers of the election may have allowed deliberate errors in the ballot papers to pave the way for the election of Wabba.
The leadership of the congress has however called a meeting of the National Administrative Council to decide on how to solve the crisis.
Our correspondent, who was at the Labour House Headquarters of the NLC in Abuja, observed that the meeting was ongoing as of the time of filing this report.
With the outcome of the delegates conference, the NLC appears to be heading for a major division.
Investigations reveal that MHWUN, the NUEE and NUPENG contributed N423m, N320m and N159m, respectively to the congress between 2011 and June 2014.
Vice President, Nigeria Labour Congress, Issa Aremu, in this interview with ADELANI ADEPEGBA in Abuja, describes employers who maltreat their workers as economic criminals and also talks about efforts being made by the organised unions to improve the welfare of workers in the country
How would you assess the impact of Labour Congress in the country?
Governor Olusegun Mimiko
As one of the Vice Presidents of the Congress, self assessment is a testy challenge for me. But if you insist, I will say only facts of yesterday and today will explain the impact of labour in Nigeria. Labour movement is as old, if not older than modern Nigeria. We marked the centenary of amalgamation of Nigeria last year. But the first officially recognised trade union in Nigeria is Civil Service Union of Nigeria. It was formed in 1912. To that extent, labour movement is older than amalgamated Nigeria of 1914. Labour was a visible actor in the struggle for independence. Remember the Iva Valley strike of Enugu coal miners of 1949. It was brutally suppressed by Lord Lugard’s colonial police. The criminal killing of these defenseless workers protesting against poor pay and the attendant national outrage armed nationalists like the great Nnamdi Azikiwe with the moral weapon to demand for an end to British colonial rule of exploitation. If you add series of strikes and protests led by indefatigable labour Number 1 man, Micheal Imoudu, of the famous Nigeria Union of Railwaymen, you will then appreciate the historic impact of labour on Nigerian nationhood. I will say NLC has 40 year-rich history of struggles for the improvement of the working and living conditions of the working men and women. Today, we commend some good employers who comply with the Minimum Wage Act for paying their workers decent wage. On the other hand, we condemn some state governments and unscrupulous private employers who shamelessly disregard the nationally prescribed minimum wage. But we often forget who brought about minimum wage? It was NLC. Without the minimum wage act, there would have been no yardstick to separate a genuine modern employer of 2014 from the colonial slave masters of the 16th to 19th century. NLC fought the struggle and commendably won the battle for a national minimum wage at a time when it was dangerous and not even fashionable to do so. In 1981, under the leadership of Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, the first pioneer President of the Congress, the first Federal Minimum Wage Act known in history was enacted by the Second Republic National Assembly. Ten years after in 1992, NLC under the leadership of late Comrade Pascal Bafyau (May Allah grant him eternal rest) improved on the then existing minimum pay. Comrade Adams Oshomhole, President of NLC for two terms under the present dispensation equally commendably got another minimum wage agreement in 2000; Comrade Adams brought some innovations; he separated Federal minimum and got another one for some oil rich states such as Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa. The current leadership of the NLC under Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar has also made its impact with significant improvement contained in the National Minimum Wage Act of 2010 signed by President Goodluck Jonathan after two years of negotiations and a two-day strike. So in terms of service to the members, NLC impact is real. We can review the effects of these verifiable wage achievements on the living standard of workers in the face of Naira devaluation, rising inflation and unemployment. But it is not because of lack of efforts on the part of organised labour. Don’t also forget the NLC was in the forefront of the struggle against military dictatorship and for democracy.
Nigerian workers are disappointed that the NLC is not seen to be doing anything about their plight. Have you abandoned the masses?
NLC is made up of over 42 industrial unions covering various sectors of the economy. 2014 can be said to be the year of workers’ protests led by various industrial unions. Unions in electricity, medical and health sectors, petroleum sector and education have waged series of struggle to defend their members. Without the resistance of national union of electricity workers, thousands of disengaged electricity workers after privatisation would not have got such significant severance pay, gratuity and pension schemes. Today, we are all lamenting the lack of electricity supply after privatisation. But National Union of Electricity Employees led by Dr. Mansur Musa and its General Secretary, Comrade Joe Ajaero, had warned about the danger of wholesome privatisation without enough power generation and public investment in the sector. In my sector, textile and garment, our consistent advocacy over the years has led to Federal Government intervention fund and a new initiative by the Federal Executive Council recently to revive the industry. One of the major achievements of my union, National Union of Textile and Garment Workers like other unions, is institutionalisation of collective bargaining process. We just concluded national negotiation between the government and the Nigeria Textile Garment and Tailoring Employers Association which has improved basic earning in the industry. 2014 agreement is the 44th national collective agreement since 1979, covering wages, housing, medical, transport allowances, gratuity and pensions. Yearly review of collective agreement in the industry shows the vibrancy of collective bargaining in our sector. Through the instrument of collective bargaining, we have increased basic minimum wage cumulatively in our sector by over 50 per cent within the past four years. The increase is well over 75 per cent if we calculate from 2004 to 2014. As I’m talking to you, judiciary workers are on legitimate strike over the need for direct budgetary allocations in line with court pronouncement. Recently, new medical bill was signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan. That was due to the struggle of medical and health workers union. The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria have been in the forefront demanding for the passage of Petroleum Industry Bill, since 1999. So if you ask me, as long as the affiliate unions of the NLC are fighting, NLC cannot be said to have abandoned workers. On the contrary, it is some state governments, some agencies of Federal Government and some unscrupulous private employers that have abandoned their workforce through lack of respect for collective agreements freely entered into with the unions. Employers who disregard provisions of labour laws with respect to payments of salaries, recruitment, permanence and security of jobs are those who abandoned their workers. That is unacceptable. Unions including NLC are victims of these employers. Employers who treat workers as disposable items to hire and fire them at will and casualise their workforce are criminals. Nigeria labour laws say you must formalise any employment after three months with extension of additional three months on probation. Labour law does not say that you keep employees in perpetual non-confirmation (of job status). Sadly, some employers, especially Asian investors keep workers for years without appointment letters spelling out their legitimate earnings. Most of our banks outsource work force like 16th century slave traders hundreds of years after the abolition of slave trade. On the part of labour, we have been leading protests campaigning against precarious work. We demand for decent work that is secure, well remunerated and pensionable. The culprits are also governments that devalue Naira thus eroding the value of wages that are not enough in the first instance. Those who abandon workers are the state governments and federal agencies that refuse to pay salaries as and when due but have enough to finance political rallies of dubious value.
But the workers believe that the NLC has lost its mandate by not fighting enough to ensure that they got their December salaries? A lot of federal and state workers are still being owed salaries.
Your question is wrongly directed. Unions including NLC do not pay salaries. Unions bargained for wage increases, the burden is for employers including governments to pay. The motto of NLC reads; Labour creates wealth. The objectives of the NLC are to ensure that the wealth generated in the world of work by working men and women is fairly shared through collective bargaining that ensures fair share. In any case, it is the unions that raised the alarm about non-payment of salaries on the eve of Christmas and the new year. After the union pressures, most employers quickly paid. Delayed payment of salaries, I maintain, is wage theft. It is an economic crime. Some of these employers are the same politicians who duly paid all their delegates for their political parties’ conventions, yet find it difficult to pay the legitimate earnings of workers as and when due.
Almost all the states have failed to pay the minimum wage and the NLC is not seen to be doing anything about it. Why?
You have to ask questions based on facts. The truth is that significant number of states and private sector have also paid. Some and indeed many even pay above minimum wage. Minimum wage is not the same as general wage review. It is the minimum below which no worker is paid. As I have told you earlier, NLC has fought for this right to minimum pay as far back as 1981, some 33 years ago. President Shehu Shagari signed the first Minimum Wage Act in 1981. There was no minimum wage in Britain until April 1, 1999. It was introduced by Tony Blair, as the campaign policy for Labour Party in the 1997 election. That was some 11 years after President Shehu Shagari was compelled to sign the first minimum wage in 1981 after a two-day general strike. So we cannot be reminded about the need to implement what we fought for. If you ask me, the demand of labour goes beyond full implementation of the existing minimum wage. The urgent task before the NLC is the review of the existing minimum wage which is due anyway, after five years. At N18,000 national minimum wage and an exchange rate of N150 to $1, Nigerian workers were earning approximately $120 per month in 2010, the year we signed this agreement. However with the devaluation of the currency and current exchange rate of almost N200 to $1, minimum wage has dropped to as low as $90 dollars per month, a shortfall of $30. When we take into consideration the rising inflation, it is clear the real income of the working people has sharply declined by over 50 per cent within the last four years. President Barrack Obama recently increased minimum wage from $7 (about N1,400) to $10 (N2,000) per hour. For eight hours, the lowest pay for an American worker is N16,000 at N200 to $1. China pays $300 minimum wage per month which is about N60,000. Nigeria now has working poor whose monthly pay can hardly take them home coupled with the unstable macroeconomic policies of the Federal Governments that erode the earnings of workers. We cannot drive the country to the path of sustainable recovery and development without adequate pay for the workers. Indeed, labour will judge all the presidential candidates as well as governorship and legislative candidates in 2015 in terms of their attitudes and programmes on the principle and detail of minimum wage in particular and compensation for working people in general. Workers are not asking for some patronising and insulting “stomach” infrastructure. Rather, workers demand for legitimate return on legitimate work done, just as investors earn profits and dividends on capital. Pope John Paul II once said (and I agree with him) that: “A just wage for the worker is the ultimate test of whether any economic system is functioning justly.”
Before, NLC seemed apolitical but it now appears that it has fully embraced politics. People say that the NLC campaigns for politicians for financial gains. Is NLC supposed to be a political organisation?
Again, try and get it right. NLC has not been apolitical. NLC is however not partisan. Being political does not mean you are necessarily partisan. I told you that our founding fathers such as late Michael Imoudu, Wahaab Goodluck, joined the nationalists to fight for independence. That was a patriotic political act. Micheal Imoudu served on the National Executive Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. NCNC was the first nationalist Nigerian political party from 1944 to 1966. The party was formed in 1944 by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Herbert Macaulay. Herbert Macaulay was its first president, while Azikiwe was its first secretary. The labour movements formed part of the NCNC. Workers are not just factors of production. We are also citizens who know that economic pressures without political power means perpetuation of the rule of the rich and in the case of Nigeria, the rule of the parasites and day-light armed robbers. Great unionists like Frank Kokori, the late Bafyau were unapologetically political as well as partisan with all the consequences of that choice. Frank Kokori was thrown into jail for fighting for the sanctity of June 12 election.
That was a political action by a unionist in defence of democracy. NLC as an institution cannot be partisan but as a collective (body), it has the right to be political; make demands on candidates and screen candidates to know those who represent the ideal of ILO’s vision of prosperity for all. In 1999 and 2003, NLC commendably organised a presidential parley to make the presidential elections of those years issues-driven. Those were political but not partisan actions.
It even went as far as endorsing Kayode Fayemi for re-election during the last election in Ekiti.
NLC can and indeed has been encouraging its members not just to vote but be available to be voted for. My union for instance as an affiliate of NLC produced Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the current remarkably successful comrade Governor of Edo state. NLC and Trade Union Council openly endorsed Comrade Oshiomhole. Comrade Aminu Suleiman and Chairman of the House Committee on Education of the Federal House of Representatives from Kano State is my Deputy General Secretary in the textile union. Comrade Peter Akpatason, a member of House of Representatives from Edo State was one time National President of NUPENG. Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, before he became a renegade governor, got the endorsement of both the NLC and TUC under the Labour Party. In record time of four years, he won election after being denied his right in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. There are varying views of the role of labour in politics even within the NLC. Some unionists believe we should be apolitical, as you observed. Others think we must make political choices. The debate is long settled that we cannot be politically indifferent just as employers. NLC is not partisan but its members are free to be politically partisan if they choose to. There was a time when business groups openly endorsed the Presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and even made money available for its campaign. In the present dispensation, the major parties are financed openly by businesses. Some people will even argue that if churches and mosques are openly political, why not trade unions that are socio and political democratic organisations? NLC has always been political anyway. We formed the current Labour Party. Its maiden name was Social Democratic Party. At its 2001 convention, its name was changed to Labour Party. During the General Ibrahim Babangida ill-fated political transition, NLC floated a Labour Party that was among the leading 11 political parties that were denied registration. Maybe the question should be why did we endorse Fayemi of another political party instead of the candidate of Labour Party? Devil is in the details of that answer which outsiders like you might not comprehend but which our members appreciated. Certainly NLC has the right of endorsement but must prepare for the challenges of winning or losing in that endorsement. In the US, our counterpart union, AFLCIO, openly endorsed Barack Obama in his two elections for his pro-labour policies including increase in minimum wage and compassionate immigration policy. Of course you know in Britain, Labour Party was formed by the labour movement, TUC, in the 19th century. Labour always endorses Labour Party candidates. But you know it is not all the time labour movement wins in any contest. Endorsement in Ekiti failed but it worked in Ondo and Edo states. In all this, the independence of NLC as a trade union remains intact. If our endorsed candidates fail to meet workers’ obligation, trade unions will still fight them as their primary duties.
What criteria do you consider before you endorse candidates because some of the politicians that the NLC endorsed in the past have embarked on anti-labour policies. Doesn’t that bother the congress?
NLC is a democratic organisation. Its objectives are to advance the welfare of workers. Whoever wants to generate wealth for Nigeria, create mass jobs for millions of unemployed persons willing to endure decent work, guarantee security of lives and property naturally has the sympathy of all Nigerians, not necessarily labour alone.
The NLC General Secretary, Mr. Peter Ozo-Eson, recently said that the rich don’t pay tax in Nigeria. How did the NLC arrive at this conclusion?
Everybody will arrive at that same conclusion. If the rich pay tax, you will not have this appalling widening gap between the few rich (persons) and the poor who are in the majority in Nigeria. You need to see various reports dealing with non-payments of taxes, tax evasions and tax avoidance by multinationals and local and foreign capital. In a country with as many as 80 million housing deficit, few build unoccupied houses in choice cities and put them under lock and key because they do not pay ground rents. Poor workers cannot engage in tax evasions because through pay as you earn, taxes are paid at the collection of low salaries.
One other reason why Nigerians believe that the NLC has failed the people is because of how Chinese, Lebanese, Indian, Israeli and other Asian companies treat Nigerians like slaves in their land.
I agree with you that NLC can certainly do more to fight these modern day slave traders masquerading as employers. But on October 7, 2014, a number of private sector unions picketed many companies as part of the activities to mark ILO Decent Work Day.
Picketing doesn’t seem to be effective as the companies that have been picketed by NLC have not changed and their workers’ welfare has even been worse.
Struggle is not a one-off event but a continuous process. Our slogan is ‘struggle continues.’ In many instances, picketing has been effective. I agree with you that NLC needs to certainly do more because few jobs available are getting precarious.
Nigerians still believe that the NLC sold out during the anti-subsidy removal protests. Is that why the NLC pulled out of the protests sooner than the people expected?
The 2011 national strike/mass protests by both the NLC and TUC reinforced by mass protests by the allies of trade unions in civil society against the prohibitive fuel price hike on the eve of the new year have raised a lot of issues, which are of profound economic, political and social importance for the country. But that shows the impact of labour to the country. First is the significance of the national strike. Just like the strikes of 1988 and 2000, 2011 strike and protests were visible, truly national and global with the participation of some Nigerians in Diaspora. The dimension of the strike was also officially acknowledged to be significant and remarkable with yet to be estimated human-day’s losses. The visibility of this singular strike, its popularity put paid to the official argument that compares the pricing of petroleum product with telecom or aviation service. If the price of any telecom product service had risen even with higher percentages, it would not have provoked a national strike of such dimension. So in our lives today, petroleum is not just another product, it is sensitive and strategic. The strike and protests just like the previous ones introduced unifying issues among the citizenry regardless of their background and persuasions. Ministers were on duty almost 24 hours while the President walked his talk to minimise overseas trips not necessarily on account of cost but in deference to protests by angry populace at home.
Another matter is how NLC deals with the outcome of the strikes/protests. This strike just like the previous ones did not lead to reversal of price increase.
However, the strike made the government return to bargain with the people which it had hitherto refused to do. Labour has rightly insisted that N97 was unilateral and not negotiated; the price reduction nonetheless reflected the gains of the strike. The decision of the trade unions to call off the strikes when government had not reversed the prices to the old price of N65 has rightly elicited mixed feelings just as it did in 1988 and 2000, when equally old rates on all products were not reversed except for kerosene. While some hailed the outcome of the strike and protests as mature, focused and manifestation of capacity of labour and democratic dispensation to resolve conflict, there are those who saw the two outcomes as ‘sellouts.’ Conflict and accommodation are two contradictory but inseparable aspects of industrial relations. This point is often not appreciated by both the governments and critics of unions alike. On the one hand, government sees labour strikes as ‘subversive’ and even at a point ‘sellouts’ to ‘subsidy cabals.’ On the other hand, critics and “emergency” activists and genuine comrades alike who hold instrumentalist notion of trade unions hoping that every strike offers opportunity to ‘upturn’ the system are quick to smear labour. The truth is that unions are neither subversive or sell outs or willing to upturn the system but only striving to protect the working and living conditions of their members within the system.
