Senator Chris Ngige, a former governor of Anambra State and until May 28 the Minister of Labour and Employment, spoke with TONY AKOWE on his activities as a minister, his regrets, his position on the payment of N30,000 minimum wage and his quarrel with the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba.
What has been the magic behind the relative calm in the industrial sector in the past four years?
THERE is no real magic about it other than the proactive stance of the ministry under my watch and bringing to bear my experience in life as a worker with the Federal Ministry of Health. I worked in the clinic before coming to the headquarters to manage the federal staff clinic in the states under the Department of Hospital Services. So I gained some experience of what the expectations of a worker could be in managing his emoluments to satisfy his monthly needs. I also managed a zone for my party and also acquired some experience there as Assistant Secretary of the party. By the grace of God, i became the governor of Anambra State.
I became the governor of the state when there was turbulence and serious labour crisis between the unions in the state and the outgoing governor then, Dr. Chiwoke Mbadinuju. I decided to learn how to manage labour dispute from there. I had a friendly NLC Chairman in the state and his team who cooperated with me. From there, I discovered that labour can be carried along if you always tell them the truth. You can also manage labour well if you don’t have a labour leader that plays to the gallery. Luckily for me, Onyeama was not.
But I had some other unions who were affiliates of the NLC, such as the NUT (Nigerian Union of Teachers) and other unions who liked playing to the gallery. I also had a NULGE chairman who was also good. So, with them, I saw that you can carry people along even if you have an economy that is not good. I came to the Senate and became a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Power, Metallurgy and Steel Development, Science and Technology, and for a while, the Committee on Education. These are areas where you have potential labour crisis. In the Senate Committee on Health, we were managing labour issues, especially with the NMA (Nigerian Medical Association), Resident Doctors and other health workers. Finally, I found myself as Minister of Labour and Employment. I decided from day one that the first thing to do was what I did in Anambra State: I would not be tired of discussing with them, tell them the truth, especially on what the government can afford and, more importantly, arm myself with the labour laws.
These laws are Trade Union Act 2004, the Trade Dispute Act 2004 and other subsidiary legislations as well as the ILO conventions and principles. Luckily, when I came in, I had an experienced Director of Trade Union Services and international Relations, and a Permanent Secretary who grew up from his first day as a graduate worker in this ministry and became a Permanent Secretary in the ministry. So, in my first one and a half years, I had the opportunity of working with these versatile officers.
Others were also very good, but I found these two officers very useful, especially in terms of Labour disputes. My Permanent Secretary complimented me in terms of the labour laws and ILO conventions for the first six months while I trained myself to read these laws. I am somebody who believe in being on the part of the law. These were the equipment with which I came to farm here, and I think that as a farmer, I did my best. The rest is for history to judge me and the ministry under my care. I have always known that whatever I do or wherever I found myself as a public officer, I should do my best, because history can be kind to you when you do your best. And when you don’t do well, it will be unkind to you, record you badly and, in most cases, you won’t even have the opportunity to defend yourself. What is the summary of this ‘best’ you claimed to have done in the ministry? Summarising it will be difficult and using the word little is also difficult, because the things we did here in three and a half years are numerous. When I came in, the economy of the country had nosedived. The President inherited a broken economy. Oil prices moved from over 90 dollars down to about 30 dollars.
There was insecurity in the Niger Delta and the production of oil fell from 2.2 million barrels per day to about 1.2 million. It took the intervention of the Vice President and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachukwu to run to the Niger Delta and start speaking to them and calming frayed nerves, because Goodluck Jonathan had just lost an election and there was the feeling among the Niger Delta youths that their brother had been pushed out. Again, pronouncements by some people did not help matters; like saying that the Maritime University promised them in Warri had been closed down or that the Amnesty Programme was downsized. Our economy then went into recession, and the President moved to institute certain measures which, even though the immediate past government knew and talked about, they were unable to do. He moved to introduce the Treasury Single Account.
I was one of those who supported the introduction of the Treasury Single Account, having being in the Senate and seeing the pillage and wastage of funds that was going on among the MDAs in the country. This brought the funds of the federal government to the glare of everybody and all the monies that could be stolen under the table without anyone knowing were now placed on top of the table. Everyone knows what has been paid into that account. Also, the President decided and got the support of the Federal Executive Council to take the bull by the horn and address the issue of inappropriate pricing of petroleum products. Kerosene and diesel had been deregulated, leaving petrol. So, he removed subsidy on PMS by telling NNPC to recover their cost and they tried to do an appropriate sale so that the landing cost would be equivalent to how much petrol will sell.
These two situations made the polity overheated and we had to grapple with it, and more work was created for the Labour Ministry because the labour movement and workers said they were the conscience of the nation went up in arms. We tried to explain to them. We tried to assuage them, yet they went on strike. There was restiveness in the financial system because there was no cheap money anymore and the grounds were not financially wet. Contractors were also crying and everybody was in a war mood against the government. We tried and broke the strike and so, it could not fly in 2016. We made some palliative overture to the workers. I led the technical team that discussed it. One of the fallout of that overture was that we agreed to review the national minimum wage. This was outside the payment of other allowances owed the workers of federal ministries and agencies.
The office of the Head of Service was encouraged to do the FISH (Federal Integrated Housing Scheme) programme. The Federal Mortgage Bank was revitalised to start building low-cost housing for workers outside the Federal Government low-cost housing being built by the Federal Housing Authority. We also had our obligation to workers in the private sector and we had to dialogue with our social partners, NECA. Those who are not within the ambit of NECA, like the oil companies, we brought them here and the then Minister of State, the late James Ocholi (SAN) and myself, we addressed them and worked out a format of what could be done. Before then, they had started sacking workers under the redundancy programme, and we told them to halt that. Some of the top management staff of the oil companies earned so much, leaving a wide gap, and we told then there was the need to reduce the gap by cutting the pegs.
We reached an agreement with them and the workers were happy. We also told them that we would make sure that government reappraised some of the joint venture partners and pay them. For the states, the President embarked on bailout funds for them so that they could pay their workers. The Paris Club refund which had never been given to states was paid to them to enable them pay their workers. This was the situation, and we were managing it when the banks came with a bang and started laying off their workers with the excuse that they were not able to recover their debts.
We said no to them, but they were adamant, and I had to threaten them with revocation of their licences. And I meant it. What I would have done was to take them to the Industrial Court or the Industrial Arbitration Panel. Once we got them there and they didn’t conform, I would go to the Federal Executive Council and blacklist them. After that, the CBN will be forced to let them know. The National Assembly had to intervene and called all of us. We went there and agreed that if they must claim redundancy, they must do it according to the rules. The Trade Dispute Act says before you declare redundancy, you call your staff and discuss with them. You must show them your books, because it is by so doing that they will know that you are financially unable to carry that size of workforce. In that case, it will be negotiated and you may not do it through unions. You can also do it with a worker who does not belong to a union.
We told them that was what should be done. And if you must do redundancy, it has to be on the principle of first to come, first to go. With that, we were able to deal with the bank situation. What they wanted to do was to offload the old staff and bring in new ones to take over. With the invocation of this principle, they were caught off guard and a lot of them had to retreat. Specifically, how were you able to address the issue of strike, especially in the health sector? After the banks issue, there were other disputes, the major one being the one with the National Association of Resident Doctors.
They went on strike, and when we told them we would invoke the principle of no work, no pay, they had to buckle and take what the government could pay at that time. There was the issue of short fall of salaries and other allowances. One or two hospitals went on separate strikes and we applied the principle of no work, no pay, and some doctors in Jos and FMC, Owerri became casualties. Up till today, we did not refund their pay. After them came the JOHESU. They went on strike and we negotiated with them in the first instance. Then in 2018, they went on another round of strike and we had to invoke the no work, no pay rule on them after two months. We had to do so because after two months, the ILO permits you to invoke it. In fact, the ILO permits you to invoke it immediately anybody on essential service embarks on strike. Essential service, as defined by the ILO, is any service by worker in which if he withdraws his service, there could be loss of life. So, health workers are number one in that classification, followed by electricity workers and then gas company workers, because all these could cause death if the services are withdrawn.
The JOHESU strike was one of the sore points of the conciliation we did because they had to be called back by the National Industrial Court. As I was preparing my instrument to refer the matter to the National Industrial Court, because they were very recalcitrant, some other civil rights body took them to that body and got an injunction against them to go back to court. The matter is still in court, which referred it to its Alternative Dispute Resolution section. There was also the ASUU strike. They did the first one and we met them half way and the strike lasted six weeks.
In 2018, they went on strike again and this time, they chose their time very well. It was around the election period. They started it in November and we had to adopt the carrot and stick approach. They had about 16 needs, and by the time we met majority of them, they called off the strike. But one thing stands out in these strikes, and that is the fact that a lot of them needed to be paid outstanding allowances that were accumulated over the years, not by this government, but the previous government who entered into an agreement with them in 2009 and another one in 2013. It is those agreements that they are now calling up for us to pay. A government that inherited a battered economy tried to do its best. The President, as a very understanding person, authorised money whenever such requests came. Don’t forget that this ministry is called Ministry of Labour and Employment. And the government, even though there is no money and the personnel cost kept increasing, we said we must give employment to Nigerians.
So, we did a double barrel approach to it. Government established the N-Power programme, which was domiciled in the Vice President’s office. We employed 200,000 in the first batch in 2016/2017, and in 2017/2018, we employed another batch of 300,000 and placed them on a monthly pay of N30,000. We also had an N-power built for those without university degree, who needed to learn some craft in various fields. We categorised them into the northern and southern zone and employed about 80,000 persons. We trained them for about nine months and empowered them with work tools. We also increased recruitment in all sectors of government who were allowed to replace those leaving and promote others. We did not place embargo on employment and so, many Nigerians were employed. We might not have been able to satisfy everybody in terms of the white collar jobs, but in terms of the blue collar jobs, we did a lot there. The Ministry of Agriculture, in liaison with the Central Bank, started providing farmers with credits under the anchor borrowers programme.
We were able to provide employment for close to eight million farming population. We revitalised skill acquisition centres through the NDE (National Directorate of Employment) and the ministry. We had special skill acquisition centres being manned by the department of skill in Lagos, Kaduna, Calabar, Bauchi, Kano and Warri, among other places. We did not achieve all that we needed to achieve in that area because our original thinking was to be funded enough to revive all the skill acquisition programmes, including those belonging to state government, and do a national programme for continuous training of people in these areas. But funds was our limitation and so we could not do that. If we go to the other areas, we got approval of the Federal Executive Council for some regulations to protect workers. We had boiler equipment regulations. We got divers regulations for those who dive to go under water to do their work.
There were other regulations for those who use lifts and cranes to work, and there are regulations to ensure their safety. We had an employment policy in place as well as occupational safety and health policies and some other policies aimed at protecting the industry. I can say that within the time we were here, we tried to do everything. Working with the International Office of Migration, we also worked out some regulations to guide those who want to migrate to other countries in such a way that they become legal migrants. The IOM assisted us in establishing a centre for us in Benin and Lagos where people can come for training. There is also a centre in Kaduna and Enugu. But the prime centres are in Lagos and Benin because of the strategic importance in human trafficking. The European Union are now interested and has approached us on the need to assist us in terms of skill acquisition programme.
These are things that we have started and will mature in the next one or two years. One of the achievements must be the issue of the minimum wage… Well, it is a big one. Minimum wage was one of the products of the technical committee that worked on the palliatives as a result of the increase in pump price of PMS. Here, we were the anchor ministry, and I led the government delegation comprising about seven ministers, the Salaries and Wages Commission and the state governments. It was a tortuous and excruciating discussion because of where we found ourselves and where we were coming from. About 27 states were unable to pay the existing minimum wage of N18,000, and now there is a demand, a genuine demand necessitated by the increase in pump price of PMS and the fact that inflation has eaten deep into the N18,000 and also by the fact that there was a big depreciation of the dollar, even though we were not computing everything about wages with the dollar.
But we know that 40 to 50 per cent of the needs of every worker is foreign based. The minimum wage encompasses transport, housing needs. The last minimum wage was negotiated and passed into law in 2011 and so, six, seven years down the line, there was no need not to touch it, because even the constitution prescribes that you must adjust pension every five years. You said it was a tortuous negotiation and now, there are governors who say they cannot pay the N30,000 agreed upon… No, it is a national law and no governor can say he will not pay. The issue of national minimum wage is item 34 on the exclusive legislative list of the third schedule of the Nigerian constitution.
The issue of labour is also there and not on the concurrent list. If it is on the concurrent list, then they can make their own state assembly laws on that. Every state government is now owing workers if they have not started paying N30,000. They are owing workers effective from 18th of April. We are now in a committee working out a new template with which we will adjust upward the consequential adjustment upstairs for those already earning above N30,000. The minimum wage is for the most vulnerable down the ladder, and that is the man on grade level one step one. So, you must consequentially adjust for the man on grade level two, grade level three, grade level four and five, because that man on GL 1 step 1 has overtaken them with his new payment. That is what we refer to as consequential adjustment.
This consequential adjustment touches more the people on the lower ladder, and we are working it out. The negotiation is going to be with the Joint Negotiating Council at both federal and state levels. What we are trying to do now with the Salaries and Wages Commission is that we have a technical committee working out what the federal government will do for their workers and advise the state government appropriately. In 2011, there was a mistake in the consequential adjustment in some states when they applied the principle of percentage increase across board, and they ran into trouble and were unable to pay. What this N30,000 translates into is that there is a 67 per cent increase. If a state government apply the same 67 per cent increase across board, there will be serious trouble.
The same with the federal government. And when there is that trouble, there will be trade dispute because the principle of ability to pay will come in and ILO encourages us to apply those principles in our discussion. If I am unable to pay and my workers know that I am unable to pay, we will sit down and agree on what I am able to pay. So, there is a baseline now as no worker in Nigeria should earn anything less than N30,000 provided that the establishment has more than 25 workers. Recently, the NLC said you were trying to frustrate the implementation of the new minimum wage. I saw the NLC President (Ayuba Waba) on television saying so. But that was when they were trying to picket. And I pitied him because he was trying to blackmail me in the wrong direction. I am the prime mover of the new minimum wage. If you ask anybody in the Federal Executive Council, they will tell you so. The President will also tell you so and he has said so many times. So, the President of the NLC is playing politics. But he can’t play politics on workers like that. If he wants to play politics, he should leave labour unionism because labour laws do not allow labour leaders to play partisan politics. So, when will workers begin to enjoy the new minimum wage? They will enjoy it.
In fact, they have started enjoying it. Employers in the private sector adjusted immediately because it is easier for them to do. In the government sector, the bureaucracy and bottleneck of government is responsible for the delay. You know that you must budget for it. That is what is causing the delay. But whenever the encumbrances are removed, they will pay arrears with effect from 18th April, 2019. So, the sooner an establishment starts paying, the better for you so that you don’t take a huge backlog that you cannot take. If you pay in piecemeal and start going, the better.
So, I advise all employers of labour in Nigeria, including state governments, to immediately set up their Joint Negotiating Councils so that whatever we get from here, we give it to them and they will look at it based on their peculiarities. There are no two states that are the same in terms of the revenue coming from the federation account and internally generated revenue. So, when the template from the federal level is given to you, you put it on the table with the Joint Negotiating Council and discuss how it suits you and cue into it as much as possible with the finances available to you. Luckily, today, finances of states are known.
Everybody knows what a state is coming from FAAC with. The IGR of most state governments are also known now. So, it is a pleasant situation that we are all in. One of the things that as often led to unrest and strike in the country, especially among government workers, is the inability of government to implement signed agreements with unions. Right now, ASUU is spoiling for another round of strike… You started by asking what is my major magic. The major magic is that I have forced government establishments to keep to agreements, especially the ones that we entered into now. Where we have difficulties is the 2009 and 2013 agreements that the then government made. But nobody wants to know that. They will tell you that government is a continuum. So, as much as possible, we try to renegotiate some of these agreements to make them realistic. The ILO principles permit that CBAs that are not feasible can be renegotiated.
That is the luck we have. And in this ministry, we have used it to the best of the advantage of the government. That is why today, if you go to the Industrial Arbitration Panel, they are complaining that cases no longer come. We are taking the bullets here and not putting some there. I have read through cases that go there and discovered that when cases go there, employers are not satisfied and still go to the National Industrial Court and to the Court of Appeal.
As they are doing that, you have a spate of industrial actions, because once the worker finds out that you are trying to frustrate them from getting what they believe is theirs, they will find ways of declaring new dispute. So, now that we are here, we have told government the truth. I insist and bring government officials here for negotiation. I don’t take officers for negotiation. The best we can do is for a Minister to come for the first two meetings and then delegate his permanent secretary, and this has worked. Ministers are chief executives of the ministries and are the ones who will take the major decisions and do a memo to Mr. President, saying we need this and that. When they do that, I corroborate it and they get the necessary funds.
