Tag: NLC

The Reconciliation Committee of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)  has failed to resolve the leadership crisis rocking the congress,according  to the  News Agency of Nigeria  (NAN).

The committee is  headed by former NLC president  Hassan Summonu.

The Congress broke into  two  at the end of its delegates’ conference in Abuja  last year.

One of the factional Presidents, Joe Ajaero, in a letter addressed to Summonu, expressed disappointment over what he called the uncommitted attitude of some of the congress members to the reconciliation.

Ajaero wrote: “We had believed that all of us were genuinely committed to speedily working through the process to reach acceptable compromise.

“The reconciliation is expected to assist the aggrieved parties build a new and vibrant movement and not pseudo outcomes that might further undermine Nigerian workers and weaken the NLC.”

Ajaero said  it would be unfair to keep with the traditions of the Congress as a protector of the masses to continue with the reconciliation effort if it proceeds beyond the end of this month,pointing out that the process as currently configured has begun to work against the interest of Nigerian workers and the Congress.

He said: “We re-emphasis that we may no longer be found available at the table any longer if these meetings continue beyond the end of January 2016.”

He said  said it was regrettable that the prolonged reconciliation and lack of cohesion by the congress has affected workers in getting their right during privatisation of the electricity sector.

Efforts to settle out-of-court a suit challenging Comrade Ayuba Wabba’s eligibility as president of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) have failed, National Industrial Court (NIC) was told yesterday.

Wabba was elected as NLC president on March 14, 2015, in Abuja, but the result of the election were discountenanced by some affiliated  unions.

Two members of the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Akuku-Toru Local Government Area (LGA) and Degema LGA branches, Comrades George Kaiserye and Tubotamuno Alalibo, who initiated the suit, yesterday told the court that Waba failed to attend any settlement meeting.

“We are not against settlement,” Kaiserye said.

Kaiserye, Alalibo and MHWUN Akuku-Toru and Degema LGA branches, as first to fourth claimants, are asking the court to determine among others, whether by virtue of rules 6(c) and 7(x) of NLC’s constitution, Waba’s term as president of MHWUN had not lapsed in March 2013, two years before seeking nomination, contesting and winning the election that brought him into office as NLC president.

The applicants are also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining Waba from further parading himself or continuing to act as president of the NLC.

Joined as co-defendants with Wabba are MHWUN, NLC, minister of Employment, Labour and Productivity and registrar of Trade Unions.

Claimants’ counsel Mr. Sola Iji said his clients filed a subpoena duces tecum against Comrade Silas Adamu, MHWUN’s acting secretary-General and Registrar of Trade Unions Mrs. Nwanyieze Mbogu, asking that the matter be moved to Abuja.

Counsel to the first and second defendants, Mr. S. A. Oladipupo, agreed that efforts at settlement were made by Waba, but that no headway was reached.

“The first and second defendants filed counter affidavits. Written addresses have also been filed. We are set for hearing,” he said.

President of the National Industrial Court, Justice Babatunde Adejumo, granted claimant’s counsel’s request for an extension of time to enable the applicant reply the counter affidavit and written addresses.

Justice Adejumo also moved hearing to Abuja and adjourned till February 16.

THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has warned the Federal Government against removing subsidy on petroleum product through the “backdoor”, saying organised labour will resist any such move.

In a statement issued by its General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, the congress asked the government to constitute the board of the Petroleum Products Prices Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), which, it said, has the sole legal responsibility to fix prices of petroleum products.

The congress argued that what the government was planning was to remove subsidy through the backdoor, arguing that any price fixed for the product now by the minister would be illegal since only the PPPRA has the right to fix prices.

In the statement, titled: “We will resist removal of fuel subsidy through the backdoor”, the NLC said: “In the past few weeks, we have heard discordant tunes from government officials and chieftains of the ruling  All Progressives Congress (APC) on what the future portends for the prices of petroleum products and the management of the subsidy scheme.

“Party chieftains, who supported and encouraged the massive protests against subsidy removal in 2012, are now preaching the inevitability of subsidy removal. The Minister of State for Petroleum first announced that come next year, the price of petrol will revert to ¦ 97 per litre and that subsidy will be phased out.

“Two days thereafter, he denied this and stated that what he said was that the price will operate within a band of ¦ 87 to ¦ 97 and that this did not mean removing the subsidy. The same minister now says that the price of petrol will now be ¦ 85 in January, signifying the deregulation of the sector.

“These vacillations and flip flops are, in our view, designed to confuse Nigerians and pave the way for deregulation of petrol prices through the backdoor. The fact of the matter is that as long as we continue to depend on imported refined products, deregulation and the abandonment of a subsidy scheme will unleash hardship on Nigerians.

“In any case, according to our laws, the determination of the recommended prices of petroleum products is the responsibility of the Petroleum Products Prices Regulatory Agency (PPPRA). By law, the board of PPPRA is made up of stakeholders.

“None of the contradictory prices the minister is throwing up is a product of the agency. Indeed, the board of the PPPRA has not operated for over two years although we have made repeated demands for the convening of the board.”

The NLC called on government to be guided by the rule of law by constituting and convening the board of PPPRA in accordance with the law without further delay.

It reiterated its directive to state councils and industrial unions to commence the process of mobilisation prior to a meeting of its National Executive Committee to be convened in the new year.

THE Nigeria Labour Congress’ (NLC) Central Working Committee has rejected the 45 per cent upward review of electricity tariff, demanding that pre-paid meters be made available free to electricity subscribers.

The congress warned against the planned reintroduction of toll gates on federal highways, saying proceeds from the toll gates in the past were never put to judicious use, but used to “line the pockets of individuals”.

In a communique at the end of its emergency meeting in Abuja, the NLC said increasing electricity tariff at this point in time with the challenges in the economy, which, it added, have adversely reduced the purchasing power of ordinary Nigerians and slowed down businesses, was not justifiable.

 The committee said electricity distribution companies have continued to exploit Nigerians through estimated billing systems for the majority of consumers, while deliberately refusing to make pre-paid meters available.

 The communique, which was signed by the NLC President Ayuba Wabba and its General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, said: “It is clear, therefore, that the 45 per cent tariff increase is an additional heavy burden on consumers and will have a telling effect on business, especially manufacturing.”

It noted “the enormous public resources expended in the past on the construction and demolition of toll gates” and added that “the proceeds from toll collection were never effectively deployed for the maintenance of roads, but lined the pockets of favoured collectors”.

The NLC said it was convinced that proceeds from any new toll collections would suffer the same fate and stressed that it “disagrees with the planned” the fresh plan..

On the issue of the N18,000 minimum wage, the congress said: “There have been discordant tunes from state governors on the issue of the National Minimum Wage.  Whereas, at one moment, they deny that there are plans to reduce the minimum wage, at another moment, they threaten to sack workers or reduce the minimum wage.

 “The National Minimum Wage of N18,000 has been rendered valueless by the mindless devaluation of the Naira and  rising inflation.  Moreover, it is legally due for a review.

 “It is a national law, which no governor can unilaterally review. In the light of the above, the CWC resolved to oppose any attempt by any governor to reduce or tamper with the minimum wage and mobilise all members of the congress to any state that reviews downward the minimum wage or resorts to laying off workers.”

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday indicated that it has started mobilising its relevant organs, civil society groups, organisations and professional bodies against plans by the Federal Government to revert the pump price of petrol to N97 from next year.

This followed media reports quoting the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, as saying at the National Assembly that the government might change the price of petrol as well as adopt a strategy of gradual removal of subsidy.

The NLC accused the minister of being an agent of those who were working to undermine the President Muhammadu Buhari administration over his constant insistence on the removal of subsidy on petroleum products.

Its President, Ayuba Wabba, who gave the workers’ position at a symposium to mark the 10th anniversary of Comrade Chuma Ubani’s death, said if Buhari wants to succeed in his programmes, he must be wary of the likes of Kachikwu.

Wabba added that the minister constantly showed his preference for subsidy removal right from when he was appointed the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) Group Managing Director, even when the President had made it clear that he was yet to be convinced that the ordinary citizen could afford increased prices of petroleum products.

The NLC president said: “At the Senate, the Minister of State on Petroleum Resources talked about ‘gradual removal strategy’, which, he said, would begin with the return to the pump price of N97 per litre from the current N87. Mr. Kachikwu threatened of the possibility of the Buhari government considering total withdrawal of fuel subsidy.

“According to him, ‘the government doesn’t need to fund subsidy. There is energy around the removal of subsidy. Most Nigerians talked to today would say that’s where to go’.

“With the figures being disclosed as the amount our political elite have stolen in the name of security, but which are used to ‘consult’ spiritualists etc, listening to Mr. Kachikwu talk about the so-called most Nigerians that they talked to wanting fuel subsidy to be removed, one can only wonder out loud who these Nigerians that the Kachikwus of this world are talking to.

“These Nigerians certainly won’t be the millions of downtrodden mass of Nigerians who weathered every odd, including threat of violence to vote out the PDP- led government and embraced on March 28, 2015, the change agenda they believed Muhammadu Buhari symbolised.

“The NLC wishes to state without equivocation that Kachikwu represents the same forces that have misled past government on the issue of removal of subsidy and deregulation of the downstream operations of the petroleum industry.

“While the position of congress on these issues clearly remains unchanged, we make bold to however caution President Buhari to be wary of the likes of Kachikwu, whose sweet tongues on the issue of subsidy removal had derailed former Presidents from achieving their lofty goals.

“Now that the Buhari government may have, through Kachikwu, sent the message to Nigerians on the path it wishes to take on the issue of petroleum subsidy, congress will meet its relevant organs, hold consultations with civil society and other organisations and professional bodies and carry out the instruction as we will be mandated.”

Wabba added: “Against the background of the serious national crisis we are currently going through, caused by the mismanagement and recklessness of our political elite since the return of civilian rule in 1999, there is always the temptation to ask whether the struggle for democracy was indeed worth it after all.

“However, I think that no matter the level of our frustration, we should not allow the question to be posed in this way. In modern times, there is hardly any alternative to democracy. What I think we ought to be questioning is the quality of our democracy and what we, labour and civil society actors should be doing to improve the quality of this democracy.

“We should rightly be addressing the question of how the working class and its allies can participate in the struggle for capturing political power so that we are able to project the programmes and the visions of the working class in rebuilding our nation.

“We must renew our determination to enthrone accountability by the political class in our country. We need to ensure that we apply maximum pressure on government so that all the ongoing disclosures of massive pillages and crimes against Nigerian people do not go unpunished.”