The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria TUCN), have vowed to resist any attempt by Confab delegates to move labour related issues from Exclusive to Concurrent list.
NLC president, Abdulwaheed Omar, and its TUC counterpart, Bala Kaigama said in a separate interview with BDSUNDAY that the recent statement credited to the Chairman of the Committee on Devolution of Power at the on-going National Conference, a former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah; advocating the transfer of all Labour matters from the Exclusive Legislative list to the Concurrent list, was regrettable and unfortunate.
Omar said the statement has drawn the anger of the nation’s organised labour, under the aegis of NLC and TUC; asking workers in the country to be alert should the conference delegates yield to the proposed plan.
He said the NLC and TUC’s, with a total number of 24 delegates in the ongoing conference have vowed to swift into action by resisting whatever antics that would be employ by any person or group of persons, stressing that contrary to the recommendation of the Committee on Civil Society, Labour and Sports, that is specifically assigned to deliberate on Labour matters at the National Conference, the move by the former Akwa Ibom Chief Executive must be ‘quashed with immediate effect’.
“As you are no doubt aware, the Committee on Civil Society, Labour, and Sports have in tandem with the aspiration of the Trade Union movement in the country, recommended that Labour and other related issues should be retained in the Exclusive Legislative list.
“When the Senate in the process of amending the Constitution last year, toyed with the idea of removing wages and other Labour related matters from the Exclusive Legislative list to the Concurrent list, the Trade Unions and other progressive organisations including the Nigerian populace kicked against the move. The House of Representatives on its part sided with the Nigerian people on the issue by agreeing to retain wages and other Labour related issues in the Exclusive Legislative List”, he said.
According to him, organised labour in the country were worried and uncomfortable that by trying to reopen the issue of Labour and other related matters being removed from the Exclusive Legislative list to the Concurrent list, Nigerians have started wondering whether members of the Attah led Committee live outside the Nigerian Society because the issue of Labour being retained in the Exclusive Legislative list was widely publicized during the Constitutional Amendment exercise by the National Assembly last year.
He lamented that, the Attah’s Committee seems to be claiming ignorance of the International Convention which Nigeria is signatory to. “Is the Committee aware that Nigeria is a signatory to Convention 87 of 1948 of the ILO on Freedom of Association and Right to Organise and Convention 98 of 1949 on Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining?
“If National Unions are killed in Nigeria, how will the country continue to participate in ILO Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) under Convention 144 of 1976? Will the ILO invite hundreds of Unions that will emerge in Nigeria into its Tripartite Committee? Indeed, can the country afford to be ridiculed before the International Community because a former state governor is obsessed with revenge?” He queried; arguing that, all over the world whether in the United States, Britain, France, Australia, Brazil, Russia, Venezuela, South Africa, Ghana, and including neighbouring Cameroun, trade unions are organized nationally. “What will these revisionists gain when Nigeria retreats to a chaotic regime whereby states will start legislating on labour issues thereby returning the country into the dark ages”?
He said “It is true that in United States of America, minimum wage is in both federal and state legislature but states can only set standards higher than the National Minimum Wage and not lower”.
Omar said the recent spate of killings and destruction of property in the North-East and some other parts of the country calls for sober reflection. “Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is threatened by incidents of violence and terrorism due to unalloyed greed and irresponsibility on the part of many of our successive leaders and our collective failure to nurture our hard-earned democracy and prepare the nation for a new progressive age”, he said.
Speaking to BD SUNDAY, TUC president, Bala Kaigama, emphaised that, in the case of Russia and other federations, their constitution has elevated labour issues and standards to the pedestal of human rights which can only be legislated upon by the federal government.
“Article 37 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation stipulates that each citizen has the right to work in an environment that meets occupational safety and health requirements, to remuneration for work that is paid without any discrimination at a rate that is not less than the minimum established by the Federal Government and to be protected from unemployment. These are best practices in the world that should be emulated, but not in Nigeria.
“Does anyone know that when states are allowed to set labour standards and regulate labour relations, the competition to attract location of economic activities can take the undesirable mode of competitively lowering of labour standards, resulting in a race to the bottom which in the long-run hurts the whole economy?”
He said to avoid such situations, central governments legislate on income tax, companies’ income tax and labour relations, saying that to do otherwise was to create fragmented economies within the national economy which can undermine overall economic development of the nation.
“It is high time we call to order politicians that are hell-bent on drawing the country backwards through ideas that have no meaning within the context of modern day administration. We have had enough of approbating and reprobating on sensitive national issues, a style that has led us nowhere”, he said.
According to him, Nigerians must stand together to move forward by strengthening all institutions that have for long fostered National Unity and cohesion, saying that those who have contributed to the mess of the past that has brought the country to the sorry state where it is today should not be allowed to mislead the nation again into taking retrogressive steps that may eventually lead the country into disintegration.
“We therefore call on the Governors and other political office holders that have their salaries fixed nationally by revenue mobilization, allocation and fiscal commission, a kind of minimum wage for political office holders and yet pushing for the denial of minimum wage for workers to be warned before the bubble burst,” he said.
“Perhaps this is because our independence, as some have argued, was attained on a platter of gold. But our democracy is not so. The memory of those who lost their lives and those who were incarcerated during the struggle for the enthronement of the present democratic dispensation is still very fresh in the minds of genuine progressives. I say genuine progressives because many in the political class now describe themselves as “progressives” just to deceive the electorate”, he added.
“I can assure you that the challenges we face today are real, grave and many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time with the lackadaisical attitude put up by ‘ogas at the top’, but know this, fellow Nigerians, that our dream and aspiration for our country will be met because we have chosen hope over fear, peace and unity of purpose over conflict and discord,” he said.
Kaigama, who stressed that Nigeria seems to be experiencing serious systemic failure, said “We are more worried that homes have been destroyed, jobs shed and employees abused at will, businesses shut down. Our health care is not at its best; our schools fail too many as results yearly rolled out by WAEC, GCE and NECO have testified. Each day brings further evidence that the reform in the power sector, the power house of any economy in the world may become a mirage all because of clandestine interests that would rather have us continually import electricity generating sets”.
He noted that, Nigeria, endowed with enormous natural resources yet gropes in the darkness of poverty; narrow interests, putting off unpleasant but necessary decisions.
He said the National Conference will kill the petty grievances, false promises and recriminations that have over the years strangled the nation’s politics and economy and denied the citizens development.
“Nigeria is a great nation but it must be understood that greatness cannot be in words alone. Greatness is never given. It must be earned. We have not yet earned the greatness that the world attributes to us. The truth is that, the situation in the country now is not a path for the faint-hearted and those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame for themselves and their cronies”, said.
NATHANIEL AKHIGBE
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