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Tag: Chris Ngige

  • Ngige to workers: Buhari’ll bequeath buoyant economy

    states bailout, by Ngige

    President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to lifting workers and leaving a legacy of service and buoyant economy, Labour and Employment Minister Dr. Chris Ngige said yesterday.

    In a message to mark Workers’ Day, Ngige said the President gave states bailout to pay salary and pension in his resolve to improve workers’ lives.

    The President, he said, was determined to create an economy that would bring sustainable abundance to the people.

    Ngige said: “On behalf of the management and staff of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment as well as its parastatals, I wish to send warm felicitations to Nigerian workers on the occasion of 2019 Workers’ Day.

    “The theme of this year’s celebration which is “Another 100 years of struggle for jobs, dignity and social justice in Nigeria” aligns with the vision and efforts of President Buhari to not only uplift the lot of the Nigerian worker, but also leave a legacy of a buoyant economy capable of creating sustainable abundance for our people.

    “The uniqueness of this year’s event manifests eventfully in its co-incidence with the centenary celebration of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which Nigeria proudly pioneered as the first country office in Africa 60 years ago, in Lagos in 1959.

    “While I sincerely salute the resilience of the nation’s workforce and its numerous contributions to national development, we owe plentiful accolades to the most labour-friendly President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, who took practical steps to douse the restiveness in the labour force he inherited four years ago due to unpaid salaries and allowances.

    “He released bailout funds at the state and federal levels, and capped it all with a new national minimum wage for the Nigerian working class in public and private sectors. As we move to the Next Level, I have no doubt that things will get better. I wish you all a productive and fulfilling workers’ Day celebration.”

     

    ‘2.78 million die yearly from

    occupational accident’

     

    At a symposium to mark the 2019 World Day for Safety and Health at Work in Abuja, Ngige said that about 2.78 million people die from occupational accidents and work-related diseases yearly worldwide.

    An additional 374 million are suffering from non-fatal occupational accidents yearly.

    This statistics, the minister said, was alarming, adding that the economic cost in these figures is not only enormous and unquantifiable, but also tragic and regrettable.

    Represented by his Permanent Secretary, William Alo, Ngige said: “This immeasurable human suffering and catastrophe caused by poor occupational safety and health practices and conditions are largely preventable”.

    The minister said free medical screening was being planned for the enhancement of the informal sector’s workers’ safety, health, and welfare.

    He said: “You can attest to the fact that technological advancement including digital technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics nanotechnology, and increasing automation is becoming more common in the workplace and machines are now attempting to take over the role of humans.

    “In a renewed effort at addressing changing patterns and emerging risks in the workplaces, the government has embarked on measures in ensuring safe, healthy and decent work for all.

    “Government has also embarked on measures to promote a culture of prevention through various workplace interventions that include the vigorous enforcement of extant labour laws through conduct and factory inspections of workplace nationwide.

    “In addition, employment patterns and structures are shifting with the introduction of new forms of employment such as outsourcing, contract staffing, and a host of other non-standard forms of employment.

    “All of these now present various threats and challenges to the safety and well-being of workers which must be addressed by the future of work”.

    The ministry, he said, would encourage concerted efforts by all stakeholders toward rising to the transformation challenges and opportunities posed by rapidly advancing technologies which revolutionised occupational safety and health concerns.

    Ngige said the evolving world of work today and in the future called for innovative investments in labour as a major factor of production, through continual learning and skill development, adding that Nigeria as a member-state of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) had since 2004, joined the yearly awareness-raising campaign.

    He said the ministry would continue to develop and review policies, legislative and regulatory framework critical to achieving sustainable improvement in safety and health standards in the workplace.

    ILO Country Director Denis Zulu said Nigeria had been consistent in commemorating the World Day for Occupational Safety, adding: “It is an important day for us in the ILO, because we are commemorating 100 years of the ILO and it gives an opportunity to see how much progress has been made in safety and health.

    “I must admit that over the past few years, we have made tremendous progress around policies and we have also made progress towards having an updated law that reflects the changing environment in the world of work.

    “We are delighted that the government is taking this issue very seriously but also the presence of the private sector, trade unions is particularly important. This is because health and safety in the workplace is not just the responsibility of the government but also the employers and the workers who are actually around the workplace”.

    Director of Occupational Safety and Health Dr. Ifeoma Anyawutaku, said it was part of the ministry’s mandate to ensure the safety and well-being of workers in their workplace.

    “It is our mandate that nobody goes to work to meet his death or gets harmed or sustains injuries in the course of doing his or her job. So, the Federal Government under the Ministry of Labour and Employment is doing so much particularly in enforcing standards, laws and regulations by guaranteeing the safety of the health and the well-being of every Nigerian worker in their various workplaces.

    “In addition to enforcement, we are involved in promotional activities and rising awareness to ensure that every worker knows those hazards they are exposed to and to also ensure that every worker knows what steps to be taken”.

     

    Workers mainstay of

    economy, says Saraki

     

    Senate President Bukola Saraki saluted workers on their contributions to the country’s socio-economic development despite what he called the fluctuating economy.

    In his Workers’ Day message, signed by his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki hailed the leadership and members of organised labour for their patriotism in often choosing dialogue rather than industrial action in resolving trade disputes.

    He expressed hope that workers would be encouraged to always put in their best in working to uplift and sustain the economy, following the recent signing into law of the N30,000 minimum wage.

    “No nation can develop without a virile and agile workforce,” Saraki said. “It is trite to say that workers are the mainstay of our nation’s economy, since no policy of government, no matter how remote, will succeed without the commitment and collaboration of workers saddled with implementation.

    “However, having interacted with Nigerian workers and their leadership times without number, I can say without fear of contradiction that the nation’s workforce is among the best on the continent,” he stated.

    “All that is left is to adequately harness their abundant talents and spirit of patriotism to further improve on the nation’s economic and political development through timely and adequate motivation, training and retraining. The public sector should work to ensure that the country realises its potential. It should eliminate tardiness, increase the level of discipline and strive to provide an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive with the resultant broadening of the scope of national prosperity”, Saraki said.

    He called on the leadership of organised labour to continue to discharge its responsibilities in the interest of the country and its people adding that  the government should continue to do its best to meet the yearnings of workers and other Nigerians through sustainable welfare programmes.

     

    Atiku: workers are critical economic partners

     

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) standard-bearer in the February 23 presidential election Atiku Abubakar has described workers and their unions as critical partners in the country’s economic development.

    In his Workers’ Day message, Atiku said: “The labour and sweat of Nigerian workers constitute the engine and lubricants of our economic growth and national development.”

    The former vice president praised unions for being dependable watchdogs that serve the people’s interest.

    “Over the years, the various labour unions in Nigeria have played pivotal intermediary role between the government and the people and the most recent is the agitation for increased minimum wage of N30,000. I congratulate the labour unions in Nigeria for this feat and I believe that with the same kind of determination, it is possible to further improve the lot of the Nigerian worker.

    “With the efforts and creative energies of Nigerian workers, I believe that it is very possible to create economic buoyancy in Nigeria and redefine our destiny in the world as a centre of prosperity and refuse to be the capital of the world’s poor people.”

    “I want to join several other well-wishers to celebrate with Nigerian workers on today’s Workers Day and also to assure the labour unions of an acknowledgement of their great sacrifices for the country,” Atiku said.

    He urged workers to embrace peace, harmony and national unity in their engagements with their employers and governments at all levels.

     

    Kalu seeks improved

    working conditions

     

    Former Abia State Governor Orji Kalu praised workers for their contributions to nation building.

    Describing them as hardworking, patriotic and productive, the Senator-elect implored government at all levels to improve workers’ welfare for the sake of productivity.

    In a statement issued by his media office, Kalu said: “As we mark this year’s Labour Day, Nigerian workers deserve to be acknowledged, celebrated and appreciated for their efforts in building a prosperous nation.

    “The labour force in Nigeria is a key component of the country and as such must be supported to promote sustainable growth and development in Nigeria.

    “Nigeria cannot be prosperous if the workers are not carried along in governance and other endeavours.

    “Government must implement policies that will guarantee welfare of workers.

    “As we live in a dynamic world, the capacity of workers must be continually built. Knowledge is key for growth and sustainable development.

    “The right people with the right skills are needed for a productive economy”

     

    ‘Nigeria must tackle

    corruption to save workers’

     

    The Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) has asked the incoming Ninth National Assembly to pass into law the Anti-Corruption Bill.

    Its National Secretary, Comrade Abdulrasaq Saidu, said corruption must be tackled to save civil servants.

    According to Saidu, workers are bearing the brunt as politicians continued to milk the country, which he noted, must be sanitised.

    Saidu noted that privatised companies such as, the National Shipping Line, Power Holding Company of Nigeria, among others were sold to enrich few Nigerians. He called for the reversal of their sale.

    Saidu frowned at the poor handling of the National Health Insurance Scheme and the National Housing Fund, calling them conduit pipes for manipulating workers’ funds.

    The ANAP secretary, who described the minimum wage as nothing, said it would be difficult for parents to pay tuition fees because of privatisation of schools.

    Saidu called for the sack of all the heads of parastatals in the aviation industry to give the agencies a new lease of life.

    Conspiracy, he said, remained the greatest problem in the sector, especially the ministry which has failed to order the payment of debts owed various agencies.

    Saidu accused Minister of State for Aviation Hadi Sirika of disobeying the President’s directive to inaugurate the parastatals’ board, saying that is “abuse of office”.

    He blamed the ministry for undue interference in the running of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), warning that the regulator’s autonomy was being threatened.

    “I blame the ministry for interference; the autonomy of NCAA is being threatened by the activities of the ministry. The regulation body is weak and airlines increase fares at will.”

    On the access gate at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Saidu called for immediate review of the agreement with the concessionaire.

    According to him, the volume of traffic at the access gate has increased and the contract must be re-negotiated.

     

    Okotie to workers:

    be more productive

     

    Pastor-politician Rev. Chris Okotie has urged workers to be more productive and efficient.

    He said he supported workers’ quest for a decent wage but warned that such demand must be matched with high productivity and efficiency.

    “A productive work force deserves decent pay; employers should also respect labour rights so as to avert disruptive strikes which often harm the economy,” he said, adding: “Nigeria needs industrial stability to grow the economy.”

    Rev. Okotie, the presidential candidate of the Fresh Democratic Party, FRESH, in the just-concluded general elections, called for a comprehensive review of the country’s labour laws to bring them in line with global standard practices as enshrined in the ILO statutes.

    Okotie expressed hope that states and other public sector employers would honour their wage obligations in the face of shrinking revenue.

    He advised the federal, other sub-national governments and public institutions to diversify their sources of revenue. “There’s an urgent need to turn our oil-dependent economy into a multi-product export economy. That’s the only way to sustain our current position as Africa’s largest economy”, Okotie added.

     

  • Community gives Ngige 72 hours to swear in Kokori

    Residents of Ovu community in Delta State yesterday blocked the East/West road to protest the refusal of Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, to swear in Frank Ovie Kokori as chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

    Kokori, who is the former Secretary-General of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), is from Ovu.

    The community gave Ngige 72 hours to swear in Kokori or be ready to face their wrath.

    Community leaders Chief Ese Okwa, Mr. Ogheneruemu Ovedje, Chief Godwin Demide and Mr. Joseph Ituge, praised the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), NUPENG and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) for supporting their political leader and father, Kokori.

    Read also: Kokori lacks experience to head NSITF, says minister

    They said they have exhausted their patience and if by the expiration of the ultimatum, their request is not granted, they will mobilise to Abuja to stop Ngige’s access to his office.

    “Ngige should be ready and prepare to kill or arrest us. How could a minister turn around to disobey the President’s directive to swear in Chief Frank Ovie Kokori who has been appointed as chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

    “The Ovu community see Ngige’s action as the height of disloyalty to the leadership of the APC ruling party, and such person need not to be associated with or be appointed in a progressive government like APC.”

  • 2.78 million workers die globally, says Ngige

    Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige said on Tuesday that statistics revealed that about 2.78 million workers die from occupational accidents and work-related diseases annually across the world with an additional 374 million workers suffering from non-fatal occupational accidents globally each year.

    Speaking at a symposium to mark the 2019 World Day for Safety and Health at Work in Abuja, the Minister said these statistics were alarming, adding that the economic cost in these figures is not only enormous and unquantifiable, but is also tragic and regrettable.

    Represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, William Alo, the Minister said “This immeasurable human suffering and catastrophes caused by poor occupational safety and health practices and conditions are largely preventable.”

    He said this included the holding of road shows, rallies, symposia; media outreach exercises, press conference, distribution of poster, flyers and other information education and communication materials, among others nationwide.

    He added that free medical screening was being targeted towards the enhancement of safety, health, and welfare of workers in the informal sector.

    “You can attest to the fact that technological advancement including digital technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics nanotechnology, and increasing automation is becoming more common in the workplace and machines are now attempting to take over the role of humans.

    “In a renewed effort at addressing changing patterns and emerging risks in the workplaces, the government has embarked on measures in ensuring safe, healthy and decent work for all.

    Read Also: Before we crucify Senator Ngige

    “Government has also embarked on measures to promote a culture of prevention through various workplace interventions that include the vigorous enforcement of extant labour laws through conduct and factory inspections of workplace, nationwide.

    “In addition, employment patterns and structures are shifting with the introduction of new forms of employment such as outsourcing, contract staffing, and a host of other non-standard forms of employment.

    “All of these now present various threats and challenges to the safety and well-being of workers which must be addressed by the future of work”.

    He however, said that the ministry had encouraged concerted effort of all stakeholders toward effectively rising to the transformation challenges and opportunities posed by rapidly advancing technologies which revolutionized occupational safety and health concerns.

    Ngige said the evolving world of work today and in the future, undoubtedly called for innovative investments in labour as a major factor of production, through continual learning and skill development, adding that Nigeria as a member state of the International labour Organization (ILO) had since 2004, joined the annual awareness-raising campaigned.

    This the Minister said had intended to focus on the magnitude of work-related accidents, injuries, diseases and deaths and contemporary remedial approach through a preventative safety and health culture at work.

    He assured all that the ministry would continue to develop and subsequently, review policies, legislative and regulatory framework that was critical to achieving sustainable improvement in safety and health standards in the workplace.

    ILO Country Director in Nigeria, Denis Zulu, said Nigeria has been consistent in commemorating the World Day for Occupational Safety, adding that “It is an important day for us in the ILO, because we are commemorating 100 years old of the ILO and it gives an opportunity to see how much progress has been made in the safety and health.

    “I must admit over the past few years, we have made tremendous progress around policies and we have also made progress towards having an updated law that reflects the changing environment in the world of work.

    “We are delighted that the government is taking this issue very seriously but also the presence of the private sector, trade unions is particularly important. This is because health and safety in the workplace is not just the responsibility of the government but also the employers and the workers who are actually around the workplace”.

    Also speaking, Director, Occupational Safety and Health in the ministry, Dr Ifeoma Anyawutaku said it was part of the ministry mandate to ensure safety and well-being of Nigerian workers in their workplace.

    “It is our mandate that nobody goes to work to meet his death or get harm or sustain injuries in the cause of doing his or her job. So, the Federal Government under the Ministry of Labour and Employment is doing so much particularly in enforcing standard, laws and regulations by guaranteeing the safety the health and the well-being of every Nigerian worker in their various workplaces.

    “In addition to enforcement, we are involved in promotional activities and rising awareness to ensure that every worker knows those hazards they exposed to and to also ensure that every worker knows what steps to be taken.”

     

  • What ails Chris Ngige?

    The one we knew was the petite David who turned the table against the Goliath of infernal godfathers in Anambra. They thought they had his hands tied with a dark oath at the Okija altar. He would be slave on the throne to slimy Chris Uba who had availed him the use of an illicit scaffold to the Awka White House.

    But once he grasped the handle of the power scythe in 2003, Chris Ngige proverbially chose to answer his father’s name by working for Anambra people, to the political bankruptcy of Uba and the demystification of the Okija gods. (It is however still debatable if mere renunciation of evil godfathers, affectation of populism in office and generally doing good to the larger Anambra society were enough eucharistic atonement for the referenced idolatry by a supposed Christian.)

    The more reason many are, therefore, confounded today at the pathetic character the once heroic Ngige is morphing into in Abuja, burning his old progressive flag. From speaking condescendingly of fellow physicians to setting the cat among the NSITF pigeons simultaneously, the man from Alor appears to be the new agent provocateur of Abuja.

    An unkind word from a brother hurts more than the poisoned arrow of an enemy, according to an African saying. Intoxicated by the office of Labour minister, Ngige chose the language of a cold-blooded slave-master against fellow doctors.

    Featuring on a Channels TV programme last week, he sneered that doctors are free to leave Nigeria: “I’m not worried. We’ve surplus. If you’ve surplus, you export. It happened some years ago here. I was taught Chemistry and Biology by Indian teachers in my secondary school days… (W)ho said we don’t have enough doctors? We’ve more than enough.”

    Those who go abroad, according to his simplistic argument, end up sending dollars home, thereby boosting the nation’s forex.

    What worsened the matter is the minister’s attempt to bamboozle us with sophistry following the backlash that the misspeak generated. He would regale us with a touted insider knowledge as someone who rose to the position of deputy director in the health ministry before joining politics. Then, the ingenious subterfuge: his discovery at the Labour ministry is that existing facilities at the nation’s teaching hospitals cannot accommodate all the doctors seeking residency, leaving a gaping deficit of 80 percent.

    So, sophist Ngige would have us believe that those so stranded are the ones he said are suitable for export.

    Now, let us subject even this spin to a simple test of logic. From statistics, out of over 72,000 medical doctors registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria as at 2018, almost half have migrated abroad in search of better pay and working environment. What that simply means is that Nigeria today can only boast of less than 40,000 doctors to a population of 200million, a far cry from the standard of one doctor to 600 patients set by the World Health Organizarion. That leaves us with one doctor to 5,000 persons in Nigeria!

    Incidentally, on the same day Ngige misspoke arrogantly, The Punch ran the second part of an in-depth nationwide report laying bare the very desperate condition in the nation’s health sector. We read ghostly stories of wards crawling with patients waiting on grossly disproportionate number of doctors. To say nothing about other ghastly tales of the afflicted made to sleep on bare floor!

    One patient at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital simply identified as Chinenye captured the miserable circumstances thus: “Since we came here (UPTH), mosquitoes have been biting us. Mosquitoes bite people here both in the day and in the night. I’ve been here for a week, but it’s only during the day that I sleep. I cannot sleep at night because mosquitoes torment us.”

    How then can Ngige, in good conscience, be claiming “surplus” of doctors – and by inference an overabundance of medicare – in Nigeria?

    Indeed, when the minister trained as doctor in the 70s, things were relatively better run in Nigeria. As a member of the nation’s political leadership in the last sixteen years, he should ordinarily be ashamed that generations after him are left to bear the crushing burden of a broken system.

    So, bearing all of this in mind, it is insensitive – if not insensate – of Ngige to speak of doctors’ exodus in the tone he spoke. It is like saying that Nigerian youths who, for lack of opportunities at home and out of sheer human instinct for survival, embark on perilous adventure on the Mediterranean Sea or Sahara Desert are free to continue on the callous premise that the nation is already overpopulated!

    It is the same bungling hands of Ngige’s that are currently at play at the NSITF (Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund). Once in the saddle, he apparently found the “juicy” commission saddled with workers’ welfare and benefits too irresistible to let go of ministerial oversight. Despite presidential directive, he has practically stalled the board’s inauguration through all known dirty tactics.

    True, the last board looted the place dry. But when an enquiry submitted its report outlining an action plan, Ngige was not in a hurry to allow normalcy return. Apparently to buy time, he floated yet another gambit – a committee to examine the findings and advise him on what to do. That afforded him a perfect alibi to delay the swearing in of the board long named in 2017. Until its chairman-designate, Frank Kokori, started a public agitation last year.

    Ngige only finally chose to let go last week, barely four weeks to the expected dissolution of the federal executive council. But in one last throw of the dice of impunity, he unilaterally smuggled in his own man from the Labour institute in Ilorin to replace Kokori as chairman, directing the latter to take up the lesser posting in Ilorin instead.

    Of course, the small party the minister planned as inauguration in Abuja had to be called off abruptly and indefinitely by aides on the appointed day on sighting the siege of notable Rottweilers in the nation’s labour community to the ministry’s secretariat, obviously scaring the daylight out of the pint-sized minister.

    The insistence of the workers that the erstwhile NUPENG leader prevail in NSITF should not be misconstrued. The Nigeria Labour Congress was directly involved in Kokori’s nomination in the first place, believing only someone of his moral stature and experience can better serve the interests of Nigeria’s long-suffering workers and resist attempt by any political interest to convert the place to a feeding trough as had been the tradition.

    So, only a reckless player like Ngige would think he could casually override the entire labour community on such a sensitive matter. In fact, the way he has been clinging to NSITF only lends credence to the belief in some quarters that the minister would rather the status quo remained indefinitely, since that helps him arrogate all critical decisions (including contract awards) to himself in the absence of a substantive board.

    Therefore, the growing whisper in town is that he would prefer a lackey as chairman in such coveted commission as part of his own “retirement plan” after Buhari’s cabinet.

    On a sentimental level, let it be said that someone like Kokori least deserves this sort of shabby treatment from Ngige. Here is a man whose exceptional sacrifice, whose courage under fire as NUPENG leader made all the difference in the June 12 struggle against the despotism of Babangida and Abacha between 1993/1994, making the restoration of democracy inevitable in 1999.

    Well, maybe Ngige confuses him with the cartel of counterfeit comrades often seen scavenging the corridors of power in funny costumes.

    In case the minister read the wrong version of the nation’s recent history, Kokori cannot – repeat, cannot – be counted among that tribe of renegades and charlatans on the military’s dough, who feverishly chanted Aluta in the day in the 90s only to sneak into the dictator’s lair at night to collect blood money to sell fellow comrades down the river, yet ironically ending up being listed among the heroes of that popular struggle.

    In a way, they are like Mugo, the traitor in Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s The Grain of wheat, falsely seen as hero by the same folks he had betrayed to the colonial overlord. The crown people had placed on his head in provincial innocence and illusion would turn a wreath of thorns, tormenting his conscience day and night.

    Those Ngige might have mistaken Kokori for are, in private, actually haunted souls today. Like Mugo, they are left to endure life in mortal dread, unsure how long their dark shameful past would remain secret.

    So, in case Ngige is desirous of salvaging what is left of his name, let him allow Kokori be. In fact, today.

  • Ngige’s hidden agenda

    Why is the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, opposed to the inauguration of a former Secretary-General of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Frank Kokori, as chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF)? How did Ngige get President Muhammadu Buhari to review Kokori’s appointment as NSITF chairman?

    These questions naturally followed the April 18 disruption of a move by the minister to inaugurate the NSITF governing board at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Productivity in Abuja. Protesting unionists disrupted the planned inauguration of an NSITF board without Kokori as chairman.

    An April 17 statement by the labour ministry, signed by the Assistant Director, Press, Rhoda Illiya, had announced Mr. Austin Enajemo-Isire, a chartered accountant, as the new NSITF chairman approved by President Buhari. According to the statement, Chief Kokori had been appointed to head the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies. It’s unclear why Kokori’s initial appointment as NSITF chairman was reconsidered. The labour ministry explained that the change followed due process and had the approval of the President.

    Ngige claimed on Channels Television: “The truth of the matter is that labour made a recommendation for somebody to be chairman of the NSITF board. It was not in the labour’s ambit to do so. We have the NSITF Act. The power to make recommendations to the President or Acting President for the chairman of the NSITF board rests solely on the minister.” This suggests Ngige had recommended Kokori’s replacement. But who initially recommended Kokori for the NSITF position?

    President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Ayuba Wabba described as “falsehood of the highest order” Ngige’s claim that labour had recommended Kokori for the NSITF position. According to Wabba, Kokori “got his nomination to chair the Board of NSITF as a chieftain of the ruling party in Delta State and in his own right as a distinguished and forthright elder statesman.”

    About four months after Kokori’s appointment was announced in October 2017 by then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, Kokori had protested during the 14th edition of the Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture/Symposium held in Lagos on January 15, 2018:  “Today, my rights are being abridged by a minister. You have this Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) where Nigerian workers and employers contribute money to, their pensions, their gratuities, their compensations are all there. Anytime they put a board in place, the board will almost eat the whole money. Now they sacked the board, a woman was the chairman; they say they are looking for her…The government, in its wisdom, when Nigerian labour and organised private sector, NECA, went to meet the president and said, please this is our board, reconstitute this board for us…we have two members, NECA has two members, Central Bank has one member, just like that, and three executive directors, we want to protect our money.”

    Kokori continued:  “The Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, phoned me and congratulated me that the president has made me the chairman of the NSITF. I should come to Abuja for us to negotiate the inauguration. Since then…I go to Abuja every day. Ngige now runs the board. A board that was set up, where I am the chairman, I now go and beg Ngige every day. Let us swear in…he will say tomorrow he is going to bury his grandmother. The next day, he is going to a naming ceremony. Ngige has no time to swear in the board. He was busy employing hundreds and hundreds of his own community people until recently they had to stop him…Up till today, four months after I was appointed by the president Ngige runs the NSITF singlehandedly and as a minister, and he does what he likes. This is what we call impunity.” If Ngige had congratulated Kokori on his appointment as NSITF chairman, why is the minister singing a different tune now?

    A month later, Ngige inaugurated a nine-member Administrative Panel of Inquiry (API) to probe the finances of NSITF, saying the move was in line with the Buhari administration’s anti-corruption war.  Ngige had said: “The last Board and Administration of the NSITF left negative trails inimical to any advancement and progress for both the human and infrastructural components of the NSITF. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had discovered various acts of fraudulent diversions from the Federal Government and Private Sector Contributions amounting to N62.3 billion as at 2015, allegedly perpetrated by the past board and management staff of the NSITF.”

    It is noteworthy that the EFCC had arraigned a former NSITF managing director, Umar Munir Abubakar, and four others for alleged diversion of N18bn of the said money. The EFCC had also questioned and detained a former NSITF chairman, Dr. Ngozi Ojeleme, for alleged diversion of over $48m from the agency’s account.

    Following the disruption of the curious inauguration, Wabba had highlighted Ngige’s curious delaying tactics.  “The first was that the appointment was made by the Acting President and that he needed to revalidate it from the President which he did,” Wabba said. “The second reason was that there has been corruption in the place and that he needed to clean it up and we said there was no problem because we are against corruption.”

    Wabba alleged in his statement: “Perhaps, unknown to the Presidency, the Minister had within this period that he was the sole manager of NSITF, recruited hundreds of people, majority of whom are from his community. He has also been in the habit of forcing the approval of hundreds of millions of Naira for dubious induction trainings, procurement and monetisation of jeeps for himself and the Minister of State in the Ministry, among other spurious expenditure.”  Observers have noted that without a proper board, there are serious issues that cannot be properly addressed. The picture suggests Ngige has a hidden agenda.

    President Buhari’s aloofness is indefensible. The President needs to break the deadlock to show that he is not only in office but also in power. He must not give the impression that the issue is beyond his control.

  • Of Ngige misjive and misdeed

    Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, is fishing in troubled waters, with his latest misjive on Nigerian doctors; and his not-so-late misdeed on the Kokori affair.  It’s high time President Muhammadu Buhari called him to order — and fast.

    Ngige just talked himself into trouble with his careless remark on Nigerian doctors.  He reportedly said no one should sweat over the stream of Nigerian medics, seeking better deals in foreign lands, simply because Nigeria was always producing more doctors.  That is a tad insensitive.

    Many have rushed to claim the minister implied Nigeria had more than enough doctors, even with the relay of those fleeing abroad.  That interpretation would be doing utter violence to the context of the minister’s speech.

    Still, it hardly justifies the carelessness of the statement, for what is reward of constantly training, only for the products to be trucked off to serve other nationals, instead of fellow Nigerians.  Instead, the minister should show the rest of us what the government he serves is doing to stem that negative tide.

    But even that Ngige misjive pales into insignificance, when compared with his  misdeed, over the Kokori  NSITF chairmanship affair.

    For some three years now, President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Chief Frank Kokori the chairman of the board of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), a federal Labour ministry parastatal.  Three years after, Ngige is still playing hanky-panky over the inauguration of that board.

    Now, Chief Kokori is no ordinary person, in Nigeria’s pro-democracy lores.  He is one of the authentic heroes, that helped to chase away the military, after Gen. Ibrahim Babangida cancelled Basorun MKO Abiola’s 12 June 1993 presidential mandate, and the crisis that followed.

    Kokori and his NUPENG braves led the paralyzing strikes that drove Gen. Babangida out of power.  He continued to marshal the sit-at-home strikes that commemorated the June 12 anniversaries, until he was betrayed and thrown into Gen. Sani Abacha’s torturous gulag, where he languished without trial.

    He survived both Abacha and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) era, under President Olusegun Obasanjo, and his successors, when those who contributed the

    least to the anti-military struggle, landed the plum of democratic era jobs.  Yet, Kokori maintained his dignity — until the coming of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government in 2015.

    That Minister Ngige would play hanky-panky with inaugurating the Kokori-chaired board is, therefore, the height of brazen injustice.  It is absolutely unacceptable.

    There is even a joke that the minister is offering Chief Kokori another chair, in lieu of the one the president offered the man.  That had better remain a joke — for who is the minister to change the decision of the president?  It had better be the joke of the millennium!

    Ngige, of all persons, should be the last to inflict injustice on anyone. Back in 2003, during those reckless PDP power days, the whole polity rallied for Ngige, against those who wanted to fraudulently remove him as Anambra State governor, using illicit state resources.

    So, the polity that rallied for Ngige should rally for Kokori now, against what looks like nothing but ministerial rascality.  The Kokori injustice must not be allowed to stand.  That is why every Labour centre, the media and the general public must pile up the pressure until Minister Ngige succumbs.

    But if things continue this way, then the president must call the minister to order.  This Ngige intransigence is no good to anyone.  It only de markets the Buhari Presidency and gives the government a bad name.

     

  • Ngige: I was misquoted on Nigeria has enough doctors’ controversy

    Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige has denied saying that Nigeria has enough medical doctors.

    He also said he didn’t say doctors were free to export their trade to other countries and make foreign exchange for the nation.

    The Minister, who claimed to have been misquoted, said what he actually said was that since there was sufficient space for residency training for medical doctors in the country, graduate of medicine who could not find space for such training were free to seek such training in other countries and become professionals in their chosen field.

    However, he insisted that Nigeria has enough medical personnel to handle non specialist areas in the rural areas of the country.

    He lamented the refusal of young doctors and other medical professional to work in the rural areas.

    In a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Nwachukwu Obidiwe, the Minister who has come under heavy criticism since his controversial statement on Channel Television,  lamented his interview has been subjected to serial distortion and misinterpretation, arising from skewed news broadcast.

    The Minister was quoted as saying that Nigeria has enough medical doctors and doctors were free to leave to ply their trade in other countries because the nation will earn lots of foreign exchange from them.

    But Ngige described the incident as well as the selective reportage which it fueled in the media as unnecessary, calling for a deeper understanding of the issue in question.

    He said: “I speak from the vintage position of being a medical doctor and member, Nigerian Medical Association since June, 1979 and enriched by my vast knowledge on health administration, having retired as a Deputy Director, Medical Services and Training from the Federal Ministry of Health in 1998, member of Vision 2010 Committee on Health as well as senior member, Senate Committee on Health 2011-2015.

    “Therefore, the truth no matter how it hurts, must be told and reality, boldly faced.

    “I invite opinion moulders especially those who have spoken or written on this issue to watch the full clip of my interview with the channels.

    Read Also: Doctors are free to leave Nigeria – Ngige

    “And it is for this reason that I admitted having a little cause to worry about brain drain among medical doctors.

    “The fact is that while the federal government has recorded a remarkably steady improvement in our healthcare system, Nigeria is yet to get there.

    “We do not at present have enough health facilities to accommodate all the doctors seeking to do  tertiary specialist training (residency) in the Teaching Hospitals, Federal Medical Centres and few accredited state and private specialist centres in the country where roughly 20% of the yearly applicants are absorbed while the remaining 80%,  try their luck elsewhere.”

    He explained most of these rejected applicants usually throng the Federal Ministry of Health and Labour and Employment to complain of being illegally schemed out.

    “What the Minister meant therefore is that these professionals have the right to seek for training abroad to sharpen their skills, become specialists and later turn this problem to a national advantage when they repatriate their legitimate earnings and later return to the country.

    “Even where some of these doctors are bonded to their oversea training institutions, examples abound on the large number of them who have successfully returned to settle and establish specialist centres across the country. It is therefore a question of turning your handicap to an advantage.”

    While insisting the problem was not limited to doctors seeking specialisation, he said young medical officers who graduate from medical schools spend two to three years looking for a space for Housemanship.

    “Luckly, the Federal Ministry of Health in conjunction with the Ministry of Labour and Employment is developing a federal assisted programme for these young doctors and other allied health professionals such as pharmacists, physiotherapists in a move to broaden training opportunities.”

    While insisting that Nigeria has enough medical personnels to man non-specialist centres in the rural areas, he said the problem of health care delivery in the country was the refusal of young doctors to work in the hinterland.

    He said: “Even the National Youth Service Corps doctors, all, today seek postings to the cities as against what obtained some decades ago.

    “Besides, doctors who did not get the few vacancies in the tertiary centres especially those owned by the Federal Government find it difficult to work in the rural hospitals.“

     

  • Doctors are free to leave Nigeria – Ngige

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige has said that medical doctors who want to leave Nigeria, are free to do so as the country has a lot of medical personnel.

    Ngige said this when he appeared on Channels TV Sunrise Daily, saying he was not bothered about the large number of medical doctors leaving the country.

    The minister was responding to questions about brain drain and deliberate recruitment of Nigerian doctors by foreign embassies in Nigeria.

    He said, “I am not worried, we have surplus doctors, if we have a surplus, we export. I was taught Biology and Chemistry by Indian teachers in my secondary school days”.

    “They are surplus in their country. We have a surplus in the medical profession in our country. I can tell you this. It is my area, we have excess. We have enough, more than enough, quote me.

    “There is nothing wrong, they go out to sharpen their skills, earn money and send them back home here. Yes, we have foreign exchange earnings from them, not from oil.”

    Read Also: Ngige: INEC shouldn’t be crucified for electoral irregularities

    He also said the number of doctors leaving the country does not amount to brain drain when asked.

    “Those guys go there, they are better trained because of the facilities they have there. Eventually, I know a couple of them who practice abroad but set up medical centres back home. They have CAT scan, MRI scan which even the government hospitals cannot maintain. So, I don’t see any loss.

    “Brain drain will only be inimical when for instance neurosurgeons travel and we don’t have neurosurgeons here.”

  • ‘Swear in Kokori as NSITF board chairman now’

    Thousands of Urhobo youths, men and women, under the auspices of Urhobo Place of Pride, (UPP), yesterday warned the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, to swear in the former Secretary-General of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Chief Frank Ovie Kokori, as the chairman of the board of the of Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

    This followed the controversy trailing the constitution of the agency’s board, which has stalled its inauguration.

    In a communique issued after a crucial meeting of the group in Ughelli, Delta State, by its National President, Comrades Sunny Basikoro; National Secretary, Etas Destiny Oberhirin and others, the youths urged Ngige to immediately swearing in Kokori.

    They warned that any attempt to delay the process would be resisted.

    The communiqué reads: “It is very unfortunate that in this country, people like Kokori could be treated in this manner. How could Kokori, a member of the party’s Board of Trustee (BoT), be undergoing this trauma in the hands of Ngige? This is a man who fought the military without compromise to restore democracy to Nigeria.

    “As every labourer deserves a reward, so also does Kokori deserve his. So, what has Kokori done to Ngige that he could say over his dead body would Kokori be inaugurated. Ngige cannot be hiding something that if Kokori assumes office it will be noticed. If not for Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), NUPENG and PENGASAN, it would have been history last week that somebody conniving with Ngige from Delta State had hijacked the position.

    “It is most painful that several times we have heard about the preparations for inauguration of the board, several times, it has also been postponed without cogent reasons. It was only looking for flimsy excuses until Ngige’s secret became so open to people after the Presidency ordered that Kokori be sworn in as the chairman.

    “Any Urhobo man who brought Mr. Austin Isire Enajomor through Ngige should know they have failed. How could one person, who is supposed to be an illustrious son of Urhobo, be an obstacle to anything good that will be coming to Urhobo? He should pray hard that the wrath of the land should not catch up with him someday. We will not take it and we will fight it to the end.

    “Because Ngige knows that the likes of Kokori, like President Muhammadu Buhari, are among the people with integrity who are difficult to be corrupted. This is why he was bent on seeing that Kokori never gets the position rather brought somebody who has been serving in a board for the past three years to come and take over believing the Buhari’s administration is Ngige’s father’s property that he decides what happens without an iota of respect for the presidency.

    “We are appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to redirect Ngige to do the needful by inaugurating Kokori as the board chairman to give peace a chance as further delay will be resisted by the Urhobos whose position Ngige is toiling with and we cannot fold our hands and watch him take what belong to us from us.”

  • Labour crisis brews over refusal to inaugurate Kokori as NSITF chair

    Trouble looms in the nation’s labour sector as Organised Labour is poised for serious action with the Ministry of Labour and Employment over the failure to inaugurate Comrade Frank Kokori as Chairman of the Board of the NSITF.

    The planned inauguration of the Board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) was aborted on Thursday as the Minister of Labour, Senator Chris Ngige, refused to inaugurate the former General Secretary of NUPENG as Chairman of the Board.

    Read Also: Why labour, OPS won’t embrace tax increase

    The event scheduled for 10.30am at the Minister’s conference room did not take place as the minister disappeared without giving reasons for the failed inauguration or why Kokori could not be chairman of the Board any longer.

    The Nation gathered the Minister has announced another person as Board chairman, claiming to have a presidential directive to do so.

    But Organised Labour vowed to resist any board not chaired by Kokori.

    Although the inauguration was said to have been moved to another venue, our correspondent could not ascertain the veracity of the claim.