Category: Labour

Members of the Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State have said there is no faction in the party and that it has risen above its long-drawn disagreement with the constitution of an all-inclusive steering committee to manage the affairs of the party into the 2023 general election

Its Vice Chairman, Comrade  Tony Masha, who cleared the air on the party having any faction, urged Obi to bring harmony to the state’s party to enable it succeed in the 2023 general elections.

Masha said the party had been organising and mobilising members for the party in the state, as well as establishing structures at the local council and ward levels.

In view of this new development, Masha urged Kayode Salako to stop parading himself as the chairman of the LP in Lagos.

The state chapter of the LP for several months had been bedevilled by in-house disagreement, with Salako claiming the chairmanship.

Making reference to what transpired before now, Masha said: “Salako imposed chairmen in all LGAs in Lagos State and put his boys to destroy the party structure in the LGAs, confusing with the structures on the ground. To date, there’s a war in many LGAs between party members. Is this what Abure gave to us in Lagos state? God forbid”, Masha added.

Salako, however, said he was still the chairman of the LP in Lagos.

“Olukayode Ezekiel Salako remains the authentic chairman recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Lagos and no other person. If you are claiming that you are leading a political party that is not recognised by INEC, you are wasting your time,” Salako said

Workers in the food sector of the economy has called on the Federal Government to save the sector from extinction as the 10 per cent excise duty placed on carbonated drinks has caused over 5,000 workers to be thrown out of employment in the last eight months.

The workers, under the umbrella of the National Union of Food Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE), in separate letters to the Speaker, House of Representatives, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, and the President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, entitled, “Federal Government Save Our Soul, Food sector is dying because of multiple excise duty/taxation,” said the duty had crippled the business from January 2022 till date.

The Federal Government imposed 10 per cent water taxation on carbonated drinks in the food sector last year.

In the letters signed by the President of NUFBTE, Lateef Oyelekan, the union lamented that it had lost over 5,000 workers to redundancy exercise due to excess taxation.

He said, “The lifespan of finished products (FCMG) is six month; billions of products have expired and will be discarded because of the price increase of the finished products.

“Raw materials of the products will be expiring soon, probably in December or January, which costs billions of naira. The production of goods daily, which was formally 12 hours per day, six days a week (Monday to Saturday) has now reduced to eight hours per day and three times a week.

“Companies that have six production lines have shut three lines down and most companies are now left with three lines to produce due to the excess percentage on excise duty and taxation. Companies are struggling to produce.”

Read Also: NLC wants excise duties on non-alcoholic, carbonated drinks reversed

Oyelekan said all the facts given by the union could be verified from the Customs officers deployed to each food factory.

According to the NUFBTE president, finished products in companies are being discarded because of its expiration and lack of purchase from customers because of products’ prices increase.

The letter read further, “Having said that, in the past years companies like Nigeria Bottling Company, Nigeria Breweries Limited, Nestle, Seven-Up Bottling Company, International Breweries, Nigeria Flour Mills, to mention a few, engaged technical school holders, GCE holders, OND holders, HND holders and trained them in the company’s technical training college for a year, after which they were employed. This is not the case again in recent times.”

“Furthermore, each of the aforementioned companies employed close to 1,000 workers in the past years, but sadly this exercise has stopped in the past two years due to the outrageous excise duty and taxation affecting the sector.”

As the 2023 general elections draw nearer, with tension across the political parties, the media has been charged not to allow anybody or groups to lure nor cow them into any act capable of tarnishing the nobility of their profession. TOBA AGBOOLA reports.

Labour experts believe that politicians seeking votes have dismissed the relevance of journalists in the electoral process.

They urged journalists not to be discouraged but rather they should set an agenda for transformational leadership ahead of the 2023 general election for a better Nigeria.

Equally, the media professionals were cautioned against accepting Greek gifts from any person(s) in any guise, who may come in different portfolios claiming to be angels and apostles of good tidings; meanwhile they are wolves in sheep’s clothing, sent to destroy Nigeria’s democracy.

At a media workshop put together by the Labour Writers Association of Nigeria (LAWAN) and the Fredrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), in Lagos recently, heavyweights in the media industry warned again that this is a period when political moneybags would do everything humanly possible to influence journalistic works in other to achieve a sinister end.

With the theme: “The Role of Media In Setting Agenda for 2023 Election”, they reminded journalists of their roles of holding government at all levels accountable to the people at all times, and to foster and engender good governance.

Speaking at the event, Director, International Press Centre, IPC, Comrade Lanre Arogundade, advised Nigerian workers, as well as their labour unions, not to be used as cannon-fodders by selfish and greedy politicians. Cannon-fodders are regarded merely as materials to be expended in war.

He warned workers to refrain from serving as foot-soldiers of political parties or as party thugs during elections.

According to him, workers must contribute to democratic accountability by documenting labour-workers-related campaign promises with a view to holding politicians accountable to their promises.

“Politicians must be held responsible for their campaign promises, especially as they relate to labour sector while generally-highlighting the roles of labour and workers in peaceful elections.” 

Labour writers, he noted, must continue to sensitise the public on the importance of PVC collections and voting by workers while drawing the attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and also State Independent Electoral Commission, SIEC, to the needs of disadvantaged Nigerian workers, such as those living with disabilities.

In the same vein, Arogundade urged the Labour writers to work with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC, to organise political debates for presidential and governorship candidates on labour-related issues.

“Labour journalists working in the broadcast media should create election programmes focusing on the issues of workers in 2023 general elections”, he stated.

Arogundade said the campaign promises must not end after the elections in 2023, but should be followed-up and encourage workers to seek for the fulfillment of those promises, stressing that journalists should publish those promises in a booklet.

In her submission at the workshop, the former Labour Editor, Vanguard Media Limited, Mrs. Funmi Komolafe, said the role of the media pre-dated the election day and must begin with party primaries, where candidates are elected or appointed to choose their flag bearers.

Read Also: 2023: Placebo aspirant as mob therapy

Delivering her lecture on “The role of the media in ensuring peaceful, credible, transparent and inclusive general elections in 2023”, she noted that journalists must report  campaign activities without being carried away by activities of politicians.

In Nigeria, she said, the media tends to focus on the number of people at the rally, instead of the real political message.

Her words, “It is, therefore, common to see headlines like “mammoth crowd and massive turn-out”, saying such headlines did not reflect objective reporting.

She, however, noted that, as the 2023 general elections approached, Nigerian journalist needed to ask in whose interest he or she is reporting?. 

“We must remember that we have a duty to ensure that the interest of our nation should be our focus. We should desist from unnecessary sensationalism that promotes ethnicity and religious divide” she added.

Human Right Activist and a Lawyer Barrister Wale Ogunade said media has made attempts towards effecting processes that would result in what can be perceived as the most important discourse on issues that would affect the society, influence and establish the spate of news occurrence.

He said agenda setting has formed a cardinal component of public opinion and accurate evaluation of such news has become important to public policy consideration.

His words: “The media has a gate-keeping function and exclusive capacity to control what is reported.

“It must be noted that for the country to remain afloat, journalists must deliver on the responsibility of holding government accountable to the people.

“The media is expected to listen to what the politicians are saying and draw a conclusion as to the reality on ground, a journalist should stay by the sacred principles of the profession to avoid misinformation.

“The media must ensure that it is that person that would take us out of the woods that would emerge as president in 2023.

Also Speaking at the event, the national  Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party,  Sen. Iyorchia Ayu reiterated plans by its Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to inject a $10 billion Economic Stimulus Fund within his first 100 days in office to prioritize support to Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.

Ayu who was represented by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon Debo Ologunagba said the party’s covenant with Nigerians is to prioritise efforts in creating a very robust economic development agenda to revamp the ailing productive sectors, stimulate multi-sectoral productivity and best conditions of service that guarantee job security, training and capacity building; competitive remuneration as well as reliable retirement and pension scheme for workers in both the public and private sectors.

The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos and presided over by Hon Justice D.E.Osiagor has dismissed the Stay of Execution suit filed by Bola-Audu Innocent and his group in respect of his order issued on 26th October, 2022, in which he restored Comrade Tommy Etim Okon and Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, as the National President and Secretary-General of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) respectively; he emphasized that both officers remain the authentic and legal signatories to the bank accounts of the union.

In a document made available to The Nation Newspaper, Justice Osiagor took exception to the refusal of Bola-Audu and his group to obey his final order of October 26, 2022, and lambasted one Gamaliel Acho, who in a press statement described his order as “judicial advice”.

He also decried the attitude of  jumping from one court to another by Bola-Audu and his group, in an attempt to get a favourable ruling on the same matter.

The judge equally described as “wicked”, the court processes filed by Audu and his group on September 6, 2022, which shut off the real parties to the dispute – Comrade Tommy Etim Okon and Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, National President and Secretary-Generaleral, and presented the police authorities and the banks of the union as respondents.

He said the police and banks had no business with the matter as they were not organs of the association that removed him from office.

Justice Osiagor described the Stay of Execution motion as baseless and shallow and accordingly dismissed it.

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), has called on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the management of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to prevail on the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG)to lessen their burden by reducing the loading fees.

The fuel marketers regretted that considering the high cost of diesel to power the station and coupled with the exploitation from private tank depot owners and NUPENG, as many of their associations had met and resolved to withdraw their services across the southeast part of the country, adding that they cannot cope under this harsh environment of doing business, caused by private depot owners and NUPENG.

IPMAN also called on President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to revive various moribund NNPC depots within the south-eastern zone aimed at ensuring sufficient  fuel at a regulated price for the consumers within the eastern zone.

The Independent oil marketers in the southeast also threatened to withdraw their services over the hike in the price of premium motor spirit in the region and the continued exploitation of union members by NUPENG.

The petroleum marketers lamented that the private depots are the cause of the hike in the price, stressing that they are buying from them at the cost of N185:00 per litre, adding that after other expences the price would rise to N200 per litre.

The IPMA, in a statement signed by it’s National President, Mr Chinedu Okoronkwo said:“It’s no longer news that premium motor spirit is sold at N200 per litre in the eastern part of Nigeria including Port Harcourt, Enugu, Owerri, Awka, Uyo, Cross River, Aba, Yenagoa, Markudi, Lokoja.

“The real cause of the hike in price is the incessant increment in the price of premium spirit from private depot owners. A litre of fuel is being sold to us at the rate of N185 per litre. When you add transport and logistics including the exploitation by NUPENG in the name of the union fee which is overN120,000 per truck, the price will be more than N200 per litre.

“Our business cannot thrive. Our various associations have met, and we have resolved to withdraw our services should they go on with the increment in petroleum price and unavoidable exploitation using the umbrella body (IPMAN)”.

In a related event, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has called for the urgent re-evaluation of the current market system which prioritises privatisation of energy production, profit-maximisation and the commoditisation of labour to tackle climate change and create green jobs

Comrade Joe Ajaero, Acting President of NLC, who made the call at his fraternal goodwill message to a stakeholder’s consultative meeting on alliance for green jobs under the auspices of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Federal Ministry of labour and employment, Abuja recently, said sustainable Green Jobs can only be created through the machinery of Just Transition.

Ajaero, who also acknowledged that the Alliance for Green Jobs is one of the possible ways to rise up to the challenge of Climate Change, said: “ I say ‘possible’ because Green Jobs by themselves are not enough to catalyse the shift from practices that harm the environment and lead to climate change. Green Jobs must be sustainable in order to cure the deficits that drive the global fossil economy”.

According to him, many commentators and meteorologists have described this year’s summer across the western hemisphere as one of the hottest in recorded history.

His words: “For the past few years, different parts of Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa have battled with strange devastations of wildfires. Persistent drought in Africa’s horn has decimated both animal and human population.

“In Nigeria, we are dealing with a deluge of flood waters which has ravaged more than 34 states of the federation.

“Precious lives, properties, livelihoods, jobs and investments have been lost to the rising waters leading to a call by a cross section of the citizenry for the declaration of a National Emergency on this year’s flooding.

“All these are clear signs that Climate Change is here and we must all rise up to its challenge.

“Since the privatisation of the power sector in Nigeria, we have not witnessed any significant growth in any aspect of energy production and distribution.

“Since the privatisation of the power sector, we have hardly had any major investment in green energy production which is critical to the creation of green jobs.

“This situation simply speaks volumes of what nature is trying to tell us through climate change.

“Nature has been trying to tell us that personal appropriation of what nature freely provides for the collective would only lead to chaos.

“Today, our own natural gas freely given to us by nature is dollarised and the costs transferred to Nigerian electricity consumers by way of high tariffs. As if that is not enough, the private power distribution companies in pursuit of profit-maximisation makes life even more difficult for the ordinary worker and the poor masses of our country by refusing to supply pre-paid meters in order to bill based on actual electricity consumed. The end result is general misery and tension. This is why NLC calls for the reversal of power sector privatisation.”

 

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has strongly criticised the proposed bulky severance pay to political office holders as their tenure in office draws near.

TUC, in a statement signed by its President, Comrade Festus Osifo, described the move as “no different from organised state robbery.”

Osifo said: “While there has been resistance by patriotic Nigerians and organisations over the years against this assault on the coffers of the country in the name of severance package for political office holders, we are traumatised that this practice is further being entrenched.

“The media reports that the severance packages of political office holders including President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the 28 governors leaving in 2023 would cost the country N63 billion. It is a wake-up call that a stop must be put to this unwholesome and unpatriotic practice.

“Even this sum does not tell the whole scandal that is severance allowances. For instance, the severance package for a Lagos State governor which led to protests and a forced downward review, awarded each former governor six new cars every three years, a house in Lagos costing N750 million and one in Abuja at N1 billion and uncapped free medical treatment for them and their family.  Other benefits were 100 per cent of annual basic salary, a cook, steward, gardener, and other domestic staff, who are also pensionable.

“Unfortunately, similar arrangements cut across federal and state governments, the executive and legislature, regions and political parties.

“Another side of the scandal still exists with governors and national assembly members who get severance packages when they are likely to return for another tenure. Why pay severance to an ex-governor who is a serving senator? More harrowing is the fact that some of these beneficiaries are still pensioners of the public and private sectors.

“Why should they earn such severance benefits in a country that has been adjudged the poverty capital of the world; a country that her tertiary institutions were shut down for eight months because of money; a country with almost 20 million out-of-school children according to the latest global data by UNESCO; a country where floods have destroyed farms, pulled down houses and increased the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)? Why should governors who cannot pay minimum wage receive severance package?

“Why should some ex-governors be paid 100 per cent of their annual basic salary for life after leaving office? These same people owed retirees arrears of the little pension they are legitimately entitled to. Such insensitivity! This profligacy must stop now!

Osifo said the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC) has severance package provisions for political office holders.

He said although the TUC is uncomfortable with this, more so when holding political office is a call to service, it is still intolerable that severance packages should become the legalised seizure of public funds for private purposes.

“In China, most of our political elites would have had their wealth confiscated and sentenced to death for such recklessness because like crude oil theft, it is a national sabotage,” he said.

Speaking further,  he said the sum of N63 billion annually to a few individuals in a country that leads the world from behind in almost all economic parameters including poor welfare for workers and retirees, is a shame.

“This is going to be one of the biggest heists in Nigeria’s history if allowed and we will not hesitate to call out our members to put a stop to it,” Osifo said.

“The TUC calls for a drastic downward review of the severance packages of political office holders in the country. Also, it demands that the monthly allowances and salaries of such officials including legislators be severely cut down as they are scandalous, insensitive and can be likened to national sabotage.”

The Director-General, Micheal Imodu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), Comrade Issa Aremu, has stated that the recent strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has caused a setback to the education sector and advised the actors in the sector to always imbibe the spirit of negotiation

Aremu gave the advice while speaking with newsmen at the venue of the leadership and management retreat for the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment held at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Kuru, Plateau State.

He said that there was no democratic country in the world without one form of industrial dispute or the other, adding that the recently suspended strike of ASUU had clearly depicted the strength of democracy in Nigeria

“The ASUU strike has also shown the strength of our democracy. There is no democratic country in the world where workers don’t go on strike. It is another means of expression. In most cases, a strike is inevitable. How we resolve the matter is what is important.

“I will advise all the actors, especially in the education sector, mainly the Ministry of Education, ASUU, the new unions that have just been registered, as well as the government officials, let there be a spirit of negotiation. We can only resolve disputes through the industrial instruments that we have,” he said.

On the registration of the Congress of Nigeria University Academics (CONUA) and National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA), the Director General of MINILS said no one should lose sleep over the registrations, adding that the registrations of the two unions within the sector were not abnormal.

“There are those who argued that it was an attempt to break the monopoly of ASUU, while others say Nigeria is simply expressing the freedom of association. Workers have the right to form unions. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Don’t forget, we had one labour union before the TUC was formed, but the two are working together. What is clear is that Nigeria practises industrial democracy. Nobody can get results except through negotiations and compromise,” he stated.

He praised the Ministry of Labour and Employment for the leadership retreat, adding that this will go a long way to promote industrial harmony and strengthen capacity-building for productivity.

Aremu stated that although dispute is inevitable, there will always be conflicts. “That is why the capacity for reconciliation needs to be strengthened,” he said.

National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions’ Employees, NUBIFIE, has rejected last week’s  sale of Polaris Bank Nigeria Limited, without the knowledge of stakeholders, including organised labour.

NUBIFIE said it was worried that, among others, a bank the government spent over  N3 trillion to recapitalise could be sold for N50 billion secretly.

NUBIFIE General Secretary Sheikh Ishiyaku Muhammed said the union would call an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting to deliberate on the issue and decide on the next action to be taken.

He lamented that the union knew of the transaction through the media. “It  is important that the general public should know the union is unaware of the sale of Polaris Bank until we read it in the media and up to this press release the union has not been contacted or communicated to, on the latest development relating to the opaque transactions,” Muhammed said.

Read Also: Babangida’s in-law new owner of Polaris Bank

He noted that the union recognised that a bridge bank could not continue to be held in trust perpetually and it was within the right of the relevant authority to take necessary measures to get suitable investor(s) among those who had indicated genuine interest in acquiring it.

He said: “The union has been inundated with various shades of complaints from stakeholders on the integrity of the process leading to the sale/acquisition of Polaris Bank Nigeria Limited and the public are expecting answers from us, as a union whose primary duty is safeguarding and defending the interests of the workers and the regular, ordinary day-to- day depositors. It is already public knowledge the government through its regulatory institutions has sunk (or invested) over a trillion naira of public funds on Polaris Bank in its turnaround efforts, and given the huge amount of public funds involved, the process of the transactions must not only be seen to be transparent and open but the public has the right to know details of such transactions.”

Muhammed said any claims of adherence to due process which excluded workers and their representative, as well as the general public, cannot stand in the face of reason, and cannot be be transparent.