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Tag: Ayuba Wabba

  • NLC to place governors owing salaries, pensions on “watch list”

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is to liase with the International Trade Union Congress (ITUC) to place names of governors in the states where workers are being owed salaries and pensions for several months on a “watch list”.

    NAN reports that the ITUC is the world’s largest trade union federation.

    It was formed on Nov. 1, 2006, out of the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the World Confederation of Labour.

    Mr Ayuba Wabba, President of the NLC, made this known while addressing the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) at its 17th anniversary on Tuesday Abuja.

    He said that aside  “naming and shaming” these governors, the NLC would soon direct Nigeria workers to monitor various airports in the country to stop such governors who may have completed their term from fleeing the country

    “We will instruct workers at the nation’s airports to disallow and disgrace any governors trying to leave the country in order to enjoy themselves overseas.

    “We have issued statements to these governors owing salaries, informing them that they cannot go anywhere to enjoy the monies they have carted away.

    “They will be disgrace and chases away,” he said.

    He said: “instead of using the money to make life good and build the country for the good of everybody, a few elites will embezzle what is meant for all for their personal use.”

    Wabba however assured pensioners that the NLC would not relent it its effort to ensure the issue of minimum pension alongside the minimum wage, was addressed.

    He said that if the government must address the issue of pensioners, it must address the welfare of pensioners, this he said would ensure that workers desist from looting.

    Wabba commended President Muhammad Buhari for the payment of pensions arrears for the Nigeria Airways workers and the 33 per cent increment the pension.

    NAN

  • Labour is at it again!

    Our problem is more fundamental than just salary increase

    Organised labour missed the point on Thursday when the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president, Ayuba Wabba, led other labour unionists to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to bare their minds on certain burning national issues, including the bogus pay our lawmakers earn, minimum wage review and sundry other matters. Although the labour leaders were right when they said that the lawmakers themselves constituted drain pipes, considering what they take home, but they failed to call the lawmakers’ pay the proper name it should be called, i.e. corruption, given the steady rise their allocation has been witnessing, from about N23.347billion in 2003 to its current N150billion; and in spite of the downturn in the country’s economy.  And, despite the fact that minimum wage in the country has remained at the paltry N18,000 per month since 2010! Can anything be more callous and ungodly?

    Anyway, I won’t waste too much time on that because a lot has been said on it and we should be awaiting the review of the National Assembly budget that Senator Saraki promised when the issue took the front burner of national discourse a few weeks ago. We will always return to that again in full force if mum continues to be the word from him, in the usual expectation that Nigerians would soon forget the issue.

    My concern today is Labour’s notice to the senate president to the effect that it would soon come with a new National Minimum Wage proposal which the congress wants the senate to quickly approve in view of the country’s present economic realities. The NLC seemingly has a point to want to push for an upward review of the present minimum wage because if salary is expected to take people home, it has since failed in that regard. A time there was when Fela sang that 20 kobo bean cake was too small (akara nko, 20 kobo for one; na janjala e be); these days, I doubt if there is anything like that, not even in the rural areas. Moreover, at the current exchange rate of N242 to the dollar, the average Nigerian worker earns about $75 in a month, just a little more than $2 a day. Pray, what can anyone do with this? Yet, we don’t want people to steal. Yet, we want people to put in their best. Are we not deceiving ourselves?

    I sympathise with Labour on this matter, especially given its unassailable reasons to justify its position. As a matter of fact, too, I do not expect any member of the National Assembly with conscience to raise issues even if Labour eventually comes up with a N50,000 monthly minimum wage proposal for approval. In the first place, this is a figure that workers had been clamouring for all these years. Moreover, that would only amount to N600,000 per annum, which is about N100,000 more than our National Assembly law makers spend on clothes alone per year!

    But, jokes apart, asking for a new minimum wage is not the answer to the question posed by the Nigerian economy. When the present N18,000 was secured in 2010, it was well celebrated. Then, it never occurred to anyone that our National Assembly law makers would get more than double that amount as wardrobe allowance in a month. Then, no one thought the naira would be so devalued that it would now be exchanging at N242 to a US dollar, up from the N140 it was in 2010 when the now moribund N18,000 minimum wage was implemented.

    A quick travel down the memory lane on minimum wage reviews in the country will suffice to buttress my point. By the 2000 National Minimum Wage (Amendment Act), minimum wage was pegged at N7,500 for Federal Government workers (and N5,500 for state government workers). This was raised to N18,000 in 2010. So, within a period of just 10 years, our minimum wage had more than tripled. And this has been the pattern since 1981 when the minimum wage was N125 per month; it rose to N250 as a result of the Minimum Wage Amendment Decree 1990. Ten years later, it had ballooned to N7,500. The implication is that between 1981 and 2015, minimum wage in the country had jumped from N125 to N18,000! I am yet to see any good country with that paradigm.

    For example, when National Minimum Wage was first introduced in Britain in 1999, it was pegged at 3.60 pounds per hour. Between 1999 and now, a period of 16 years, it has increased only by 3.30 pounds per hour. Indeed, when salaries are increased in many other places, it is not as ridiculous as ours and the workers are far better off. Not so in Nigeria. Without doubt, the situation here concerning the astronomical rise in minimum wage over the years tells us that the problem is not about asking for high wage. It is much more fundamental.

    This is what the NLC should be in the vanguard of unravelling (assuming it does not yet know why) and clamouring for its correction. What successive increases in wages has done is to enable the politicians (whether those in military uniform or their civilian counterparts) to keep deceiving Nigerians and giving them the impression that all is well because, as soon as the workers get the salary increase, they jubilate. But when they get to the market a few weeks or months later, they discover that the money has further lost its value. I still remember what I was able to do with my N96 (sorry, N200) monthly allowance as a youth corps member in 1985. Those on national service now cannot boast of same despite the fact that they earn by far more. Even for the brief period I worked with my School Certificate result, I know the things I was able to do with my salary of about N110 per month. Today’s graduates who are lucky to have jobs are groaning because the wads of naira notes in their pockets can hardly buy anything of substance. My fear is that, at the rate at which we are going, a time will come when we would have to carry money in Ghana-must-go bags to buy an average loaf of bread as is the case in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe which I guess must be brimming with trillionaires!

    Therefore, what Labour should be clamouring for is good governance, not new minimum wage. Without good governance, we are only going to be wasting our time moving in circles, irrespective of the frequency of periodic reviews of minimum wage, or the magnitude. If we had done the needful in this regard, especially in the immediate past, this country would not be where it is today. If we had been alive to our responsibilities as Nigerians, we would not have had the kind of corrupt government that brought our economy to its knees as the Goodluck Jonathan government did, without giving it any serious fight until the General Elections.

    Perhaps Labour’s thinking by insisting on new minimum wage all the time is that this would mop up some of the surplus money that public officials steal. If that is the reasoning, we must have seen it has not worked. As a matter of fact, the public officials might grandstand and make negotiations for minimum wage tedious and laborious; they would be more worried the moment they see that the critical segments of the society are clamouring for good governance because that alone is the antidote to the massive looting of our treasury that has become our lot over the decades.

    My fear however is whether Labour itself is not complicit in the situation we find ourselves because if it had been doing what it should do to call the country’s leaders to order, things would not have been this bad. The other problem is the state of the labour union itself; recent revelations on its housing scheme, its transport scheme and NLC’s last election which almost reflected our national elections are enough cause for concern as to whether the congress can provide the desired leadership to take us out of the woods.

    Labour cannot be doing the same thing over and again and expect a different result.

  • Minimum wage: Organised Labour to demand two years arrears, says Wabba

    Even as the controversy surrounding the new National minimum wage is yet to settle, the Nation May be in for another round of intense pressure as Organised Labour said they may be demanding for two years arrears if the minimum wage, having lost two years to negotiation.

    The Organised Labour has insisted that the in accordance to the earlier agreement of 2011, the new minimum wage was due for renegotiation in 2016, while negotiation did not start until March 2018.

    President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba told the visiting General Secretary of the Public Service International (PSI), Mrs Rosa Pavanelli, that the delay by President Muhammudu Buhari to transmit the executive bill on the minimum wage to the National Assembly was worrisome.

    He explained that Organised Labour were not unaware of the new antics being employed by state governors to ensure government renege on the recommendation of the tripartite committee, adding that members of the organised labour have already asked the President to immediately forward the bill to the National Assembly.

    He said Nigerian workers have made tremendous sacrifice and are going to demand for arrears of that two years we have lost because “In all fairness and justices, going forward as they are going out to campaign, we will also go out to campaign for our minimum wage.

    “I also want to inform you that we have passed the first hurdle and it took us almost a year to be at the Tripartite negotiating table for a figure and we have agreed on a figure of N30, 000.

    “That figure has been transmitted to Mr President who set up the committee and we have also told them to forward an executive bill immediately to the National Assembly. We are not unaware of the new tactics by the state governors to try to arm-twist what has already being done”.

    Read Also: Federal Govt planning to proscribe NLC – Wabba

    Explaining the processes that led to the N30,000 agreed upon by the tripartite committee, Wabba said six state governors were part of the negotiation process and each of them represented each of the geopolitical zones.

    He said public hearing was also held in the zones where the state governors were also invited to present their inputs and also a letter was written to each of the governors to send in their memoranda, saying that 21 states complied.

    According to NLC president, 21 state governors quoted figures 8n their memo t9 the committee, some of which were higher than even the agreed figure and also was the same with the Organised Private Sector.

    “So, mutually on the negotiation table, we have looked at all other factors, especially factors that were provided in convention 131 and 95 of the International Labour Organisation on the Minimum Wage in which five factors were considered.

    “The issue of the purchasing power parity, inflation, ability to pay, all those factors were considered and that is how our demand of N66, 500 was then agreed mutually on N30, 000. So, workers have made enough sacrifices as we have lost already two years”.

    Wabba condemned the plan to privatized the Pension Fund Administration, saying it was another twist by multinationals to try to access funds that they were not part off.

    He added that in Nigeria they have tried that severally to say they want to diversify the investment portfolio of pensions that they want to use it to build roads but we have resisted.

    “We have said that these monies belong to workers and if it belong to workers, it is only workers organisations and workers that would determine how these monies will be invested.

    “We will not allow a situation where these monies would be invested in very risked ventures, where the money will go down the drain. So we will continue to resist it, we will continue to follow the process and ensure that politician will not deep their hands into our pension fund”.

    He said that NLC had carried out various campaign in the support of the fight against corruption and also the whist blower’s policy, in order to ensure good governance in the country.

    Speaking earlier, Mrs Rosa Pavanelli who said PSI covers the public service in over 170 countries said she was in Nigeria to show support for the Trade union movement in Nigeria.

    Panvanelli said workers in the public service were faced with a lot of challenges especially in Nigeria, Working for months, providing services to people without being paid is something that is unacceptable and this unfortunately what is happening here.

    “In a country which is rich of resources that can have wealth distribute but it is oppressed by the greater international capital that want to grab the resources and forget the people who create wealth for the country. This is very wrong and unacceptable, we must ensure good governance, social justice for the Nigerian workers, we will support you anytime you call on us,” she said.

     

  • Buhari, Ngige, Wabba meet in Aso Rock over minimum wage

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday met behind closed doors with the Minimum Wage Tripartite Committee over the proposed for new minimum wage.
    Also at the Council Chamber venue of the meeting are the Chairperson of the Tripartite Committee and former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Ama Pepple, Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Ayuba Wabba, Director General of NECA among others.
    It was gathered that the Federal Government may likely ask for a slight change in the agreed N30,000.
    Recall that the Federal Government had proposed N24, 000, while State Governors proposed N22,500 as new minimum wage but the two proposals infuriated the organised labour which culminated in the threat to embark on indefinite strike before government accepted to pay N30, 000.

    Read Also: Buhari, COCIN Executives meet in Aso Rock

    However, despite the agreement reached during the Monday night meeting held at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, the organized labour said not withstanding the success recorded in making the Federal Government to accept N30,000 as the agreed minimum wage for Nigerian workers, there are still hurdles to cross.
    Presidents and Secretaries of affiliate unions were also directed to mobilize members and be on standby in case any further directives on the implementations of the agreed amount.
    The meeting was still in progress at the time of filing this report.

  • Our concern with new minimum wage – NGF

    The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) has reinstated its  concern with new minimum wage, even as it claimed not to be against the upward review of workers pay.

    The chairman of the forum, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara, said the concerns bothers on the ability or resources to pay the agreed minimum wage.

    He disclosed these while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the forum meeting held on Wednesday in Abuja.

    He posited that NGF is not in anyway against the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to get minimum wage reviewed.

    “But, the problem of state is the capacity to pay what is agreed. As we are talking today we are struggling with N18,000. Some of the states are paying 35 per cent, some 50 per cent and still some states have salary arrears,” he said.

    “So, it is not about only reviewing it but how we are going to get the resources to cater for it,” he stressed.

    On the use of London and Paris club refunds, he said that the National President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, was invited to brief the forum on states performance.

    Read Also: NGF hosts states tax officers

    The Federal Government disbursed the fund to states with the condition to use larger percentage of the money to pay workers’ salaries.

    He said while some states had recorded some progress in line with the condition they signed with the Federal Government, others were still owing arrears.

    “So, we invited the National President of NLC to give us details on how some states performed. Some other states that are not up to date, where are they.

    So they have signed Memorandum of Understanding with the NLC at the national level and their representative in states on when they are going to overcome the issue of salary arrears.

    “That has been done and it has been taken to the Central Bank Governor to ensure that those states were also paid.”

    Mr Yari also disclosed that the forum took far reaching decisions on the state of security in the country, he however said that the decisions would be channelled to the right quarters for appropriate actions.

    An update was also received from the NGF Secretariat on Polio and Primary Healthcare Under One Roof.

    He said governors expressed commitment to facilitate the development of a minimum package and investment plan for State Primary Healthcare Boards.

    He added that observations were raised about the issue of PHC, including concern that the function of the local governments was being taken away.

    “It was made clear by some governors that the PHC has nothing to do with the national, that it is just a domestic issue of local governments.

    “Those issues were raised, debated and we are going to put a memo in place to the National Economic Council so that it can be discussed.”

    The forum according to him also received briefing on the forthcoming 24th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) from Mr Laoye Jaiyeola, the Chief Executive Officer of the NES Group.

  • Minimum wage: ‘We cannot guarantee industrial peace’

    There are indications that unless there is timely intervention from the President, Muhammadu Buhari, Organised Labour may soon call out workers for yet another round of strike following insinuations that the government was yet to agree on a new National minimum wage with Organised Labour.

    The leadership of Organised Labour said they cannot guarantee industrial peace and harmony in the country if the government delayed further the announcement and implementation of the new National minimum wage following the completion of the work of the tripartite committee set up by the President to come up with a new minimum wage for the country.

    President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba had told newsmen that the federal government will announce a new National minimum wage after a meeting of the National Economic Council, but Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige told the Nation after the Federal Executive Council meeting that the committee was yet to arrive at a particular figure.

    Ngige said the government was still negotiating with Organised Labour as the states and federal government as well as Organised Labour and employers were banding different figures which has not been agreed upon.

    Sources close to the committee told The Nation that the Minister of Labour himself headed the subcommittee on figures during the negotiations and came up with certain figures which the committee discussed over two days before arriving at a particular figure which is to be communicated to the President.

    Apart from the figures, the committee has also drafted a bill which is to be sent to the National Assembly to give the new National minimum wage wage a legal backing.

    Read Also: Minimum Wage: No agreement on N30,000, Says FG

    Contacted, President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) Comrade Bala Bobboi Kaigama  said organized labour will not disclose its next line of action for now, but waiting for Chairman of the Tripathite Committee to call them to come and sign the final document which will be submitted to the President.

    Kaigama told The Nation on phone that since the committee has concluded it’s work, Nigerians should be patient and await the final document which will made available by the government, pointing out that the statement by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige should not be taken serious by Nigerians.

    He said Organised Labour will meet at the appropriate time to take a decision on the way forward, adding that it was rather too early to begin to talk of any formal action.

    He said “Like you know, the tripartite committee has concluded its assignment. We are waiting for the Chairperson of the committee and former Head of Service of the Federation, Ms. Ama Pepple to invite them to come and sign a clean copy of the final report which will be submitted to the President.”

    In a reaction to the Minister’s claims, Organised Labour had accused the minister of creating unnecessary tension among workers and Nigerians with his statement.

    They said “Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige claiming that no amount has been agreed by the Tripartite Committee recommendation to government. The report further claimed that the Minister said that government was still negotiating with Labour.

    “It is rather unfortunate and sad if indeed, the Honourable Minister made those statements. For the avoidance of doubt, organised labour representatives Wish to state unequivocally that the Tripartite Committee concluded is work, adopted a figure through a formal motion moved, seconded and adopted In the absence of any counter motion.

    “This was after a thorough debate of a report from the subcommittee figure, chaired by Senator Ngige himself which presented four scenarios for consideration.

    “The subcommittee worked on the basis of a figure proposed by the Federal Government, figures proposed by a number of state government, as well as proposals submitted by the Organised Private Sector and Organised Labour.

    “The Committee formally adjourned its sitting with a decision that a date will be communicated to members for the signing of the report and submission of same to Mr President.

    “Organised Labour, therefore frowns at the manipulation and bending of facts in an attempt to delay or derail the processes needed to promulgate a new National Minimum Wage. We call on the government to take immediate necessary steps to ensure the enactment of a new National Minimum Wage

    as we cannot guarantee Industrial peace and harmony.”

  • Workers’ strike paralyses Lagos judiciary

    The court rooms of the Lagos State Judiciary were shut to adjudication of cases as workers stayed away to observe the nationwide strike called by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to press home their demand improved minimum wage.

    As a result, lawyers and litigants who came to the courts were turned back at the gate by security guards keeping watch over the court premises.

    The NLC and TUC are asking for N50,000 as against the present N18,000  as minimum wage for workers in the public and organized private sectors across the country.

    The premises of the High Court of Lagos State, Ikeja was quiet like a grave yard on Thursday.

    All the doors of the court rooms were chained and padlocked by workers to prevent proceedings from taking place.

    The Chief Registrar, Mrs Taiwo Olatokun who arrived Ikeja High Court could not gain access to her office as the main door of the administrative building was also put in chain and padlocked.

    Mrs Olatokun stood by the main gate and was seen discussing with some heads of departments of the judiciary. They left when it became clear that workers were not going to open the offices.

    However, the security men spread out all over the premises of Ikeja high court to ensure safety of properety.

    None of the officials of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) were on ground to answer media enquiries on Thursday.

    The Nigeria Labour Congress had on Wednesday directed all its members and affiliate unions to commence a nationwide strike yesterday after a stalemated meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.

    The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said the industrial action would commence due to the refusal of the Federal Government to reconvene the meeting of the tripartite national minimum wage committee to enable it to conclude its work.

    He said, “In compliance with this mandate, all workers and private sector at all levels across the country have been directed to comply.

    “All public and private institutions, offices, banks, schools, public and private business premises, including filling station, are to remain shut till further notice.

  • Nigeria needs $3tr to bridge infrastructural deficit, says Wabba

    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba has said Nigeria will need about $3 trillion in the next 26 years to bridge the infrastructural gap in country.

    The National President of National Union of Civil Engineering Construct, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW), Comrade Amaechi Asugwuni, attributed the dearth of infrastructure in the country to massive corruption and what he described as irresponsibility of the federal, state, and local governments.

    Speaking at the Infrastructural Summit and 40th anniversary of the National Union of Civil Engineering Construct, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW) yesterday in Abuja, Wabba said the importance of  infrastructural development as a nation cannot be overestimated.

    He said the country was suffering from several infrastructural deficit that has affected the various sector of the national economy, pointing out that sectors that have suffered mostly includes the energy, transport, railways, roads, inland waterways, education, housing, agricultural sector and the information communication technology, among others.

    According to him, the World Economy Forum state that every dollar spend on infrastructure has a potential to generate between five to ten per cent of economic growth and therefore this is very central and key.

    “This potential is important as it has been estimated that Nigeria needs at least three trillion us dollars in the next 26 years to bridge the infrastructural gap in the country. As this will transform our vast potentials into concrete social economy tangibles and this will also require about 100 billion dollars capital investment annually, ‘’he said.

    He lamented that despite the enormous resources available to the country, Nigeria has not be able to attain to its potentials as it concerns infrastructure in the country.

    He said “for instance if you look at our population of closed to 200 million and we are still struggling to keep our electricity generation at less than 4000 megawatt while South Africa are at 55million megawatt.

    “No doubt that is why our industries cannot operate at full potential and there is no way we can address the challenging issue of unemployment in the country. So, infrastructure is the key to addressing multifaceted development, from the issues of poverty, unemployment, insecurity.

    “Therefore your union is very central  and that I am very delighted that you chose this theme to look at infrastructural development in our country and how to work the talk, ‘’Wabba said.

    Also Prof. Stephen Ocheni, Minister of State, Labour and Employment said policies of the present administration were gear towards addressing the infrastructural deficits in the country.

    Ocheni said that infrastructure was the key to national development as it would address the issue of unemployment, security, among others, adding that the lack of infrastructural development in the country was due inappropriate policies and lack of continuity by the past administration.

    “I want to assure you that the present administration attach great importance to capital projects and is determined to continue with viable  projects and so we are vigorously pursuing it, ‘’he said.

  • Minimum wage committee to round up negotiation soon – Wabba

    Says no evidence Nigeria has exited Recession

    President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba has assured Nigerian workers that ongoing negotiations for a new national minimum wage will be concluded before the end of August, expressing the hope however that implementation will begin immediately.

    Wabba also said that despite claims by government that the country has exited recession, Nigerians were yet to see the results of the exit as the social and economic situations of average Nigerians are daily becoming bleaker than before.

    The Congress also said that the numerous problems facing the country and its people are signs of bad governance and bad leadership which has characterized the nation’s democracy since 1999.

    Speaking at the 16th Rain School and the 32nd in the sequence of the NLC National Schools, with the theme “Labour, Politics and National Unity: Expanding the Frontiers of Workers’ Participation”, President of Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba said the Labour movement remains the only institution can integrate the Nigerian people because it is never divided along primordial lines.

    He said: “The Nigerian nation is undergoing numerous challenges ranging from economic crisis, security crisis and other socio-cultural challenges that we must all come to terms with and collectively tackle.

    “Innocent lives are being killed and dispensed with, as human lives do not count so much to those committing these heinous crimes. Young people are being exploited and used by disgruntled people who are manipulating them because of the crisis of development which have created mass poverty, unemployment and inequality in the country.

    “The numerous problems confronting the country and its people are signs of bad governance and leadership which has characterized our democracy since 1999.

    Read Also: Workers never get demands on platter of gold, says Wabba

    “The Labour movement remains the only standing political institution that has the wherewithal to make national integration possible. This is because; we are never divided along sentimental lines that other political institutions are known with. And that is why we keep insisting that ethnic and religious sentiments have no place in the movement.

    “We are amused that some politicians in the name of expanding the frontiers of capitalism do not see any good in the existence of trade unions. They have forgotten that the working people are the producers of wealth which service their political careers from where they are occupying the political positions.

    “It is in the face of practicing an obscured and jaundiced capitalism that many state governors deliberately refused to pay the salaries of the workers and pensions in their states.

    “One very saddening case is that of Kaduna State, where Governor Nasir El-Rufa’i has embarked on an illusory agenda of ensuring that trade unions become extinct by stopping payment of salary, pensions and check-off dues.

    “Let me have it on record those governors and other political officer holders are elected or appointed to serve the people and not kill them through stoppage of the means of their survival and that of their organizations.

    “Nigerians have been told that the country has gotten out of recession, but we are yet to see the result of the exit of the country from recession as the social and economic situations of average Nigerians is daily becoming bleaker than before.

    “The Nigeria Labour Congress acknowledges the performance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the conduct of elections especially, Congress commends the sterling performance of the INEC in the conduct of the recent governorship election in Ekiti State which was adjudged to be free and fair and devoid of violence by observers.

    “Congress is excited with these performances and in this light wants to call on INEC to come up with some innovations that can make our electoral system better.

    “As the 2019 General elections approach, Congress implores the political parties and politicians to conduct themselves in a civilized way that is in compliance with international best practices through observance and adherence to the electoral rules and regulations.

    The Congress and other stakeholders are still meeting on the issues of minimum wage and hopefully will round up by August 2018. With Minimum wage as one of the most important ways of motivating workers to provide effective service, it is envisaged that, its implementation will engender growth not only among the public sector workers but also among the workers in the private and informal sectors of the economy.

    In Addition, the financial benefits associated with the minimum wage would trickle down to the whole society. It is instructive to state that the Congress will continue to pursue its goal of ensuring Labour participation in politics using its structures and programmes.

  • Make payment of salaries and pensions your first priority, NLC tells Fayemi

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has asked Ekiti governor elect, Dr. Kayode Fayemi to pay particular attention to the payment of salaries and pension of the people of the state immediately he is sworn in saying the election that brought him in was a vote of no confidence on the current government in the state.

    In a congratulatory letter to the governor elect, dated 20th July, 2018 and signed by the President of Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, the NLC also asked the governor elect not to waste energy on needless probes of the past government, but pay attention to other compelling needs of the people of the state.

    Wabba said the Labour movement “believes that the non-payment of workers salary and pension by the outgoing government was enough reason for the vote of no confidence by the people. We are confident that one of your first executive actions once sworn into office would be to clear the backlog of salaries and pension owed Ekiti workers.

    “There are other compelling needs of Ekiti people on the basis of which they will look up to you. They shall be acting within their civic rights and responsibility if and when they hold you accountable to your promises. Our responsibility to your government would be no less. We therefore urge you to give your utmost, your very best.”

    Read Also: I’ll probe Fayose’s administration, says Fayemi

    He said further that “Your election, no doubt, is a reflection of the popular wishes of the people and their appreciation of the work you started. Few, if any, suffered the level of government-engineered vilification and witch-hunt aimed at frustrating your bid for a second term in office.

    “That you won this election in spite of these obstacles or frustration should be a source of joy and pride to you and your esteemed supporters.

    “However, we advise that this victory be not pay back time, and neither should it be seen or treated as one but as an opportunity to complete the work started by you in your first tenure. Most importantly, we believe, it will avail you a rare chance to render higher and greater service to the people of Ekiti State who have kept faith with you in spite of everything.