The Ogun State chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Hakeem Ambali, in this interview, speaks on issues relating to workers’ welfare in the state,local government autonomy, review of minimum wage for Nigerian workers. among others.
It is true and I stand to affirm and confirm that in one of the meetings in which the Nigeria Labour Congress held with the state government, the representatives of government told us that they have the mandate of Mr. Governor to inform NLC that come July ending, that all outstanding arrears; be they contributory pension, cooperative deductions, check-off dues and bank deductions would have been paid.
But, we are yet to receive alerts and surprisingly the government and the governor is not saying anything. Labour is disturbed about the perpetual silence of Senator Amosun and the government of Ogun State.
We are saying this because we are aware that workers are becoming more agitated,labour leaders are under pressure and there are inquiries and name calling of labour leaders by Ogun State workers.
NLC is assuring workers in the state that within the next seven days, Labour will have to meet the state government to negotiate on how government will redeem that promise and pledge. We cannot toil with the future of Ogun State workers when the state government is owing contributory pension for 60 months. It is unheard of and not acceptable to us.
Labour is concerned, maybe it is an oversight or the government, somehow, does not know the import of trying to cripple labour in the state, because workers’ deductions meant for unions have been deducted and not remitted to appropriate quarters, which means there is a deliberate policy by the state government to cripple Labour activities in the state. That is not acceptable. We are, therefore, appealing to the state government to be proactive before situation gets out of hands.
Should the meeting with the state government fail to yield any meaningful result, what will be Labour’s next line of ?action?
We are confident that the meeting will be successful, because we are aware that the state government is one of the states that requested for bailout from the Federal Government. We are even aware that even before bailout,the state government had affirmed before God, Man and Labour that by July ending,it had all it took to pay all outstanding arrears. We know, maybe, the governor is not aware that his promise has not been implemented. We are, therefore, calling on our dear governor to investigate and track the money that we believe has been released for the payment. Labour knows that the governor is a listening person. Governance is about human capital development, so if the governor really means well and all of us believe, then he should summon courage to investigate those monies deducted from workers’ salaries are kept and give appropriate directive for its prompt release, before workers start dying due to poverty and deprivation.
Are you very sure that the bailout requested by some states from the FG has been paid to the coffers of the Ogun State government?
Yes, because silence means consent. We want to confirm, we don’t want to be the voice of the Ogun State government. It is the duty of the state government to come out to say that they have not collected the bailout fund. For us in Labour, since the state government has not come out to deny collection, then where is the money?
The leadership of the NLC has called for the upward review of the minimum wage, in view of the present economic situation of the country, do you think the review is feasible?
This is a fundamental issue. At the just concluded National Executive Committee meeting of the NLC, we did a critical analysis of the situation of the country. We realised that as correctly stated by Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, any state government or governor that fails to pay the N18,000 minimum wage is not only callous, but wicked and greedy.
We also came to the conclusion that why are some of the governors are having challenges. We zeroed it down to three points. One, this is because political aspirants run very expensive campaigns in which when they get to office, they find themselves squandering and diverting state resources and even approach banks to obtain loans at the expense of the masses, because they want to be elected at all costs.
Two, most of them left last administration with bogus severance allowances up to the tune of N3m and N5m, which is arbitrary and criminal.
Three, due to greed many of them appoint very large political appointees and that is majorly responsible for the inability of some state governments to pay.
One of the governors in the North-Central came out to say that he was relieving about 3,000 political appointees of their posts,for God’s sake, what do you need them for? What we need to do is to look inwards, do self-appraisal and do a good critical analysis and prioritisation of the need of the community, the government and the people.
We believe if all these are done by controlling the greed and corruption among the political class, then the country will be better for it. People are saying workers are involved in corruption, this is incorrect and unheard of.
In the past, workers were the chief accounting officers of ministries, parastatals and agencies, that was the days of Simeon Adebo and other technocrats, unlike now when politicians love to seize all powers at all costs. They have removed the power of a Permanent Secretary in becoming chief accounting Officer of an agency. They have hijacked the power of CAO from top career officers. Until, Nigeria goes back to the days when top career officers have the security, the advantage of saying no to some actions taken by political functionaries when it comes to addressing some issues, the country might find it difficult to confront the issue of corruption.
Career officers now are just like messengers to political office holders. For example, the appointment of Permanent Secretary, the present law gives the power to Chief Executive Officers like the president, governor to appoint at his own discretion, which means they have turned that career position to quasi-political position. This means you have to lobby the governor. The governor has the power to appoint and retrench permanent secretaries and retire them. So, at that level, there is no job security for permanent secretaries.
For NLC, if we address this issue genuinely, conscientiously and honestly, there is no state in the country that cannot afford payment of N29,000 minimum wage for workers across board.
Even with the present economic reality?
Yes. What economic challenge are we talking about? Have we reduced the salaries of governors, security votes of governors and local government chairmen? What are we talking about? Have we reduced the salary of Mr. President? The reduction they are talking about is just salaries. What about allowances of members of the National Assembly which is very bogus? Funnily, our politicians earn the fattest allowances in the world while Nigerian workers earn the lowest pay, when you do a comparative analysis of our economy and our revenue.
Are you aware that many state governors in the country have not constituted their kitchen cabinets and have not made appointments of special advisers/assistants? in order to reduce the cost of governance. What is your view about this?
If that decision is out of patriotism and not out of greed to divert the money, it is good. This is a period for them to address fundamental issues. For example, we have permanent secretaries and other technocrats in all government ministries, agencies and parastatals, what is the relevance of appointing consultants, special advisers to manage these places?
You only need a commissioner to represent government, why do we need special advisers/assistants considering the economic situation of a state? It is a duplication of effort, cumbersome and negatively bureaucratic. We must be able to challenge them to know what they are doing with all the funds they are saving. If this fund that is saved from the deliberate decision or reducing cost of governance of not appointing aides is channelled toward human capital development, then we will be saying we are getting it right. If it is still the same spate of development that we witnessed before they were disengaged, then it is absolute rubbish.
Let’s talk about the agitation for the autonomy of local government, what is your position on this issue?
As the national treasurer of the National Union of Local Government Employees, we have carried out research that in a country like the United Kingdom, local governments have been so blessed and endowed to the extent of having international airports.
But,in Nigeria, the poser is this - if you are sincere as a governor, that you are not corrupt by diverting local government allocation, why fighting tooth and nail to kill local government under your control? It speaks volume. It has been demonstrated in Kaduna State, where the incumbent governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, scrapped Joint Allocation Account Committee (JAAC), that was used as a conduit pipe before his assumption of office.
Local governments in Kaduna State now have their allocation directly. The world has not come to the end in Kaduna. The people are better off and they are happy. Local government has now been re-directed to service the grass roots.
The issue of autonomy is of great importance to Nigeria. This country is sick. We are having four major challenges towards the growth and development of our country.
One is the Decree 4 of 1966 which brought Northern and Southern protectorates together which limited the scope of regional development in Nigeria. Until we allow competition in the nation’s system where we give free hands for each region to develop its own potentialities, we might not be getting it right. Any system that is so synchronised to unitary system of government is antithetical.
Unless we allow competition in the system, even the nature has so created it that there is competition, that Africa development is quite different from the UK and other countries of the world. That is the beauty of democracy. Man must be ambitious. If you now bring a lacuna into a law which limits the rate of development of a particular region to that of others, that means there is a problem. The law must be repealed for us to move forward as a nation.
The solution to Nigeria’s problem is having a regional government with a weak centre, so that each region will be allowed to have resource control. The function of the Federal Government should be payment of taxes so that each zone should be able to develop their potentialities, develop their natural resources, pay taxes to the central government.
The fear in Nigeria is that if you allow regional control of resources is unheard of. For instance, if you look at other countries like the in UK, they live on taxes. Let the South-South control their resources, same with the South-West and the northern region. If we are able to do that,the regions will develop according to their pace. Then the abnormal competition for federal positions will not be there again.
Secondly, the ember of discord and disharmony planted in our constitution called certificate of origin and quota system. We must come to a situation of patriotism to say that I am a Nigerian, irrespective of creed, sex and religion. We sing this in our national anthem, but we have not been putting it into practice. An Igbo man should be able to come to the South West, if he so loves. He should be able to assume or aspire to the highest position in that zone. We only need to protect our tradition. We do not need the quota system to limit the growth and development of any other region. We call for the abolition of certificate of origin. An American will tell you ‘I am an American’ without saying ‘I am from Texas’ or Winsconsin, same with a Briton.
In Nigeria, the commitment to nationhood is missing. A Yoruba or Hausa man will see himself as a Yoruba or an Hausa man before seeing his other brother, this is antithetical to the growth and development of the country.
Thirdly, this is the issue of territorial integrity and security. Nigeria must be able to determine the border posts. Until we are able to do that, to know how many border posts that are approved, the Immigration coming out to reality and the Bureau of Statistics telling us the population of Nigeria, number of immigrants and emigrants, we are not getting anywhere.
A family that does not know the number of its household cannot feed them.
Fourthly, we must be able to have local government autonomy. Local government cannot be under the state, because the state is not under the federal. The existence of state government is in itself a convenient arrangement. I don’t blame the governors who are jittery and apprehensive because they know that if we have functional local governments, there will be no rural-urban migration.
Why should people in Emuren and Ogijo come to Abeokuta to see the state governor for tarring of roads for providing drainage system, water and what have you. The fear of those managing the state is that when there are functional and progressive council areas, the state government will be irrelevant and that is why they are opposing local government autonomy.
If the local governments had been adequately empowered the issue of the Chibok girls would not have arisen at all, because the local vigilante groups know the terrain and security network of their area, but because somebody, somewhere, as a governor cornered the finances of the local governments, that is why we find local government bosses not performing. We find them in helpless situation.
When you deny grass-roots people right leadership, right to self-determination, right to self security, right to their tradition and custom. These days, when you want to coronate an Oba, you must get the approval of the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. That is not right and we are talking about federalism.
Nigeria is not running federal system but unitarian form of government. So, until we have functional local council areas, that is purposeful, managed by people who are genuinely interested in the service of the people, we will not get it right.
Local government is a foundation of democracy and once we have a dysfunctional foundation then democracy cannot last.
It is worthy of note the contribution and patriotism of President Muhammadu Buhari in coming out to say that he is going to work assiduously for local government autonomy. That is commendable and good. I therefore challenge Governor Ibikunle Amosun to scrap Joint Allocation Committee of Ogun State. We know he meant well. He should allow local government direct access to their funds.
What is your view about the proposed additional 32 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) by the Ogun State government, vis-a-vis the performance of the outgone chairmen that administered the 20 local governments in the state in the last three years?
The LCDA is good if we have local government autonomy. LCDA will be good if it will translate into prompt payment of salaries. It will be good if it dovetail into developmental projects that will meet the yearning and aspirations of the people.
However,it will be so bad if we will end up creating LCDAs and we find ourselves on the same spot. For NLC, we support creation of LCDAs if it will come out to be a positive step towards making life better to the people of the grass roots, allowing them to choose their leaders and not by imposition through a State Independent Electoral Commission that is not biased, not partisan but neutral. Having workers receiving their salaries before the last working day of the month?. If all these cannot be achieved that effort is wasteful.
You asked about the comparison of the performance of immediate past chairmen in our local governments with previous administration.
To be realistic, where is the fund for the chairmen to implement projects. Where is the power when state governments across the nation handpick chief executives of local governments? When CEOs across the country install caretaker chairmen to administer the council areas against the dictate and the letter of the Constitution.
When SIEC is so partisan and pauperised by governors of various states to ensure that there is no due process in the electoral procedure. It is a matter of he who pays the piper calls the tune.
We will be unfair to those administrators that have just left office if we are comparing them with those administrations that served under General Ibrahim Babangida, that enjoyed full local government autonomy.
Among these people that were nominated, selected or elected, which of them have the effrontery to challenge the governor on issues? We will not be doing justice to the issue of evaluation. The Babangida days was the golden era, when local governments enjoyed full autonomy and that is a follow-up to the Obasanjo regime. [Olusegun] Obasanjo’s administration came up with local government reform. He attracted best hands to local government administrtion, departmentalise and did a lot of things for the local governments. I know Baba will not be happy because of what is happening at the grass roots.
Those who are responsible for the gradual killing, suffocation of the local government are now coming out to say local government is not performing.
What is your position on the recommendation of the Committee on Devolution of Powers that labour matters should be removed from exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list?
We have passed through that way severally. They can never and will never achieve that. You see politicians are funny. They have subdued the collective interest of the people. They have shut the mouths of journalists, lawyers, electoral umpires. The only voice that remains is the voice of the activists, whether in journalism, civil rights and labour. They wanted that at all costs to make sure they become not only dictators, but emperors. God will not allow that.
You remember a man from the Niger Delta moved the motion during the last legislative session?,he failed. The God of the masses, workers is still alive. If they remove labour from exclusive legislative list to concurrent list against the international best practises, Nigeria is doomed.
Even now, government with undue interference into labour matters, government threats and coercion into labour matters, government greed and deprivation into labour matters, is hampering the standard of operation of labour.
So,if we know join that by signing a death warrant against labour movements, it shows the masses are doomed. God forbid that.
Casualisation of workers is becoming an issue all over the country and Ogun State is not an exception. What do you think should be done to address this “slavery”?
At the last NEC meeting of NLC, we reviewed the issue and it was condemned. We realised that some people are cashing on the lapses in the law. Let me use Ogun State as an example. There is a particular woman in this state parading herself as labour contractor. She will go to companies and tell them that she can provide workers for these companies. She will be paid something around N25,000,only for her to pay the workers a paltry sum of N10,000. That is modern-day slavery. We have written to the State House of Assembly, we are awaiting their reply. Slave trade has been abolished in Nigeria.
Ogun NLC is constituting a committee to investigate the issue of casualisation, corporate social responsibilities of companies in the state and issue of abuse and criminality in service.
We are calling on the Ogun State government to be proactive in this regard.
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
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