A. Preamble
The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) met on Wednesday, December 19, 2018, at Pascal Bafyau Labour House, Abuja. The meeting was attended by members of the National Administrative Council (NAC), Presidents, General Secretaries and Treasurers of the affiliate industrial unions and the Chairpersons of the 36 State Councils and the FCT.
The NEC-in-Session received the report and recommendations of the Central Working Committee (CWC) on the struggle for a new national minimum wage, and the preparation for the 12th Delegates Conference scheduled for February 5-7, 2019. The NEC also received the report of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) 4th World Congress held recently in Copenhagen, Denmark. The NEC took factual notice of and congratulated the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, mni on his election as the Global President of the over 207 million strong membership ITUC, for a four-year tenure.
The NEC also received updates on the ongoing efforts to reverse the sack of Ogun State NLC Chairman by Ogun State Governor and the strike actions embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU); the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP); and the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) and other ancillary matters.
B. The NEC-in-Session after extensive deliberations CONDEMNED in the strongest terms:
1. The continued delay by the Federal Government to transmit the Bill of the new national minimum wage to the National Assembly for enactment into law. This leisurely conduct of serious state affairs is even after the National Assembly had passed a Resolution urging the President and the Executive branch of government to transmit the new national minimum wage amendment bill to it for consideration and passage into law. The NEC expressed total dissatisfaction with the consequential delay and unacceptable lethargy in the process of regularizing and implementing the new national minimum wage of N30,000. The calculated inaction of the Federal Government is a demonstration of acute insensitivity to the plight of Nigerian workers, their families and ordinary citizens;
2. The sustained deployment of brute force by political office holders to harass, hound and victimize workers and labour leaders. The NEC particularly took strong exceptions to the unrelenting attitude of the Ogun State Government to frustrate efforts to peacefully reinstate the NLC Chairman in Ogun State, Comrade Akeem Ambali who was sacked from the employment of the Ogun State government in the middle of a 2016 strike action to protest injustice against Ogun State workers. The Comrade has been made to suffer unfair treatment for nearly two years on account of the performance of his legitimate duties. This ugly situation has persisted despite repeated emissaries sent to the Ogun State Governor to reconsider his unsupportable position on the issue. The Ogun State Governor has also continued to enslave, pauperize and victimize Ogun State workers in the following ways:
i. Ogun State Government has not paid Ogun State workers who have retired their gratuity since 2012. Even those paid before then were severely shortchanged as the Ogun State government used an unknown and illegal instrument, the so-called “Basic Rent and Transport” (BRT), to calculate gratuity due to workers;
ii. Ogun State Government is the highest debtor on Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS). The Ogun State Government has not remitted the Contributory Pension Scheme for an accumulated and contiguous period of one hundred and six (106) months;
iii. The Ogun State Government unlawfully proscribed the elected trade union executives in the Tai Solarin College of Education, Omu–Ijebu Ode, Ogun State. Governor Ibikunle Amosun has also refused to obey a competent court order from the National Industrial Court (NIC) to reinstate the sacked trade union executives of the Tai Solarin College of Education, Omu-Ijebu Ode, Ogun State; and
iv. The Ogun State Government has refused to release 7 months check off dues from workers to trade unions in the state. This is despite an agreement the State Government signed with workers to use 50% of the Paris Club Refund to offset debts owed Ogun State workers.
3. The entrenched insensitivity by some state governments and other political office holders to the plight of workers and pensioners especially in the States owing several months of salary arrears, unpaid pension and gratuity of retired workers. It is most unfortunate that many of the governors diverted a significant part of the bailout funds and the Paris Club Refund initiatives meant to offset salaries, pension and gratuity owed workers and pensioners for purposes of personal aggrandizement and to fund non-impactful frivolous programmes and projects. The NEC demanded a full investigation by the EFCC of the disbursement of all Bailout, Paris Club Refund and Budget Support releases to the States;
4. The unabating neglect of the education sector by both the Federal and State governments. This utter abandonment of the development of the human capital of our country has been chiefly exemplified by the refusal of government to respect the agreement it freely entered with ASUU, especially the Memorandum of Action of November 2017. The agreement was primarily focused on adequate funding for the repositioning of public education in Nigeria for national rebirth and global competitiveness of the products of Nigerian universities.
C. Therefore, the NEC-in-Session RESOLVED as follows:
1. To embark on a nationwide mobilization of Nigerian workers for protests to express anger and total dissatisfaction over the delay by the Federal Government in transmitting, enacting and implementing the new national minimum wage of N30,000. The NEC-in-Session approved that the protests should hold in all State capitals and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja on 8th January, 2019. The NEC mandates all industrial unions and state councils to fully mobilize workers and coordinate with other labour unions for this mother-of-all protest;
2. In particular, the NEC condemns the trampling upon the fundamental human rights and freedom of association by the Ogun State Governor especially pertaining to the irresponsible purported proscription of trade union rights in the Tai Solarin College of Education, Omu – Ijebu Ode, Ogun State. The NEC also denounced the continued refusal to pay the salaries of workers in the College of Education for nearly three years. The NEC expressed grief for the needless loss of lives and unbearable suffering by workers of the Tai Solarin College of Education, Omu – Ijebu Ode, as a result of Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s flagrant disrespect of the rights of workers of the Tai Solarin College of Education, Omu – Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, to their wages and salaries;
3. To further engage the Ogun State Government, for the final time, for a peaceful resolution of the issues already highlighted and the reinstatement of the Chairman of the Ogun State Council, Comrade Akeem Ambali. Thereafter, in the spirit of “injury to one is an injury to all”, the NLC may be left with no option than to mobilize workers all over Nigeria for sustained industrial action in Ogun State;
4. That all state governments still owing workers arrears of salaries, pension and gratuity must settle all their wage liabilities before the 2019 general election. The NEC reiterates its earlier directives to workers all over the country not only to vote out State Governors and other political office holders owing workers but also, to mobilize their families and friends to ensure that all elected public office holders who are not worker-friendly are voted out of office in the forthcoming 2019 general elections. Nigerian workers are also directed to support in full force the re-election bid of all state governors and political office holders who are worker-friendly and up to date in the payment of workers’ salaries and gratuity cum pension for retired workers;
5. That the Federal Government should honour its 2017 Memorandum of Action (MoA) Agreement with ASUU in order to restore sanity and raise the quality of the products of our public universities. The NEC also called on the Federal and State Governments to take into consideration the plight of Nigerian youth who are forced to idle away at home or to return to dilapidated teaching environments in our Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education;
6. Furthermore, the NEC urges the governments to increase funding to our Polytechnics, review the salary structure cum scheme of service of polytechnic staff, restore allowances withdrawn from polytechnic lecturers, immediately settle arrears of CONTESS 15 owed Polytechnic lecturers and for the state governments all over the country to settle arrears of salaries and allowances owed Polytechnic lecturers; and
7. That the National Assembly management must urgently settle all arrears of salaries and allowances owed the members of staff who drive the legislative engine and oil the machinery of Nigeria’s Federal Parliament.
–Comrade Ayuba Wabba, mni Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson
President General Secretary
