The newly elected
chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Kaduna State council, spoke on
issues he hopes to tackle during his tenure, as well as his progamme
for the union.
What do you think was the reason why you were overwhelmingly elected as the chairman of NLC Kaduna State council?
The labour
movements in Kaduna State are yearning for change and therefore they
felt that they can get that change in me. That is why they rallied
round and voted all of us to come and stir the mantle of leadership, at
least give them what has been missing for some time. I’m not in any way
trying to disregard or dishonour the past executive, but the issue is
that the former executive was a bit slow when it comes to action and
discussing with government. So people have not been feeling the impact.
And I was part of the past executive, though as a spare tyre. We have
done a little but there is a very huge task ahead of us. That is why
the quest to serve the workers prompted me into contesting against my
immediate boss and the workers chose to elect me as their chairman. And
we want to use this medium to tell the workers that we are grateful and
we will not let them down.
Talking
about being ‘a spare tyre’, as vice chairman in the last executive
council, what significant contribution did you made in moving the
labour movement forward?
As far as I am
concerned, when you are a spare tyre your duty is just to advice and it
is incumbent on the leader to either take what you have advised or he
leave it. I tried my own way to advice and I did my best. The
leadership that time neglected some of those advices. For example, the
labour transport, I was made the chairman. But when I advised the
chairman that this is the best way to do it in other to succeed, the
chairman did not take my advice .So I voluntarily resigned as chairman
of labour transport because I cannot be in a system and cannot be able
to change that system. And that is why we started having some of our
differences. If you go now you will see some of the buses that are
grounded, you will also find out that if my advice was taking, possibly
we won’t have found ourselves in this situation. That is why we want to
offer a change, not that we are hundred per cent perfect, as human
beings we also have our own weaknesses. But shall try to build on what
the former exco has laid down and take Kaduna state workers to the next
level.
The last
executive was accused of getting too close to the government at the
expense of the workers. How true is the allegation and how are you
going to ensure that your administration is not enmeshed in such a
controversy?
Well, definitely
those who were accusing the former executive of romancing with
government you cannot say they were wrong. They were right quite okay.
There is nothing wrong in getting close to government but if you are
too close to government and then you neglect why you are the leader
that is too bad. And that is why this present leadership, though I will
not say we won’t get close top government, but getting closer and
parleying with government will not in any way affect the struggle when
it comes to fighting for the workers’ rights. This is what we promised
the workers and we are going to stick to it.
Some time
labour leaders usually compromise whenever there is agitations over an
issue like salary increment What ways do you think that labour unionism
as a whole can avoid such scenario?
You see, if you are
getting closer to government, you know NLC depends on donors from civil
societies and government. If NLC is financially stable, and is able to
solve their problems themselves, I think getting closer to government
will be minimised. Because I was part and parcel of the past executive
and there is nothing that NLC Kaduna state chapter would do without
going to seek for assistance from government. When you go begging from
government and government oblige you that request, tomorrow will you
have the courage to now look the government in the eyes and say gives
this thing or nothing. We should have done better with the labour mass
transit, we could have talking of being comfortable now but because of
poor management and lack of taking advices you find that 26 million
would have metamorphosed into 36 million. But the 26 million that
government gave as grant, we cannot even give account of it. I
inherited an empty account; I was told at the bank that what we have in
the account was forty thousand naira. Imagine four years, if you can
turn around 26 million in four years it will bring you a lot of profit.
And that is why we want to turn around the labour transport to have an
avenue of generating income. We also have land at the Nnamdi Azikiwe by
pass, possibly if we can develop some and sell some, it will generate
revenue. Because we don’t want to be begging government so that we can
be able to demand our rights from the government.
You said that you inherited an empty treasury. Will it be wrong to assume that the former executive was reckless in spending?
I may not use the
word reckless because it will look as if I am abusing my immediate past
boss. But the issue is that they have not done well when it comes to
finances. Even records, there was no accurate records of activities of
the past exco. Imagine that as a secretary of the labour council in
Kaduna State you don’t have a record that can say what has happened.
Minutes were not adequately taking, no financial record like voucher,
so we have a lot of problems that we have inherited. And I want to use
my experience as a trade unionist to see vouchers are printed so that
any amount spent anybody who comes to audit will have our records.
In other words, are you going to set up a committee to probe the activities of the past administration?
No, the issue of
investigation doesn’t even arise; if we are saying we want to
investigate we will not even do what the workers expect us to do. In
fact we will do more harm than good. I came because people voted me and
what I want to do is to draw a line when I took over, I will never turn
back to say I will probe anything. I will only want the people to know
the difference between the past executive and our administration.
Kaduna
State civil servants are the least paid in the country. What effort is
your administration going to put to ensure that the government
increases the take home pay of the workers?
I will not want to
agree with you that Kaduna State is the least paid state, I agree with
you that about two years ago Kaduna State was the least paid. But when
the present vice president who was the governor of the state then, we
were agitating for the increment of salary and I was part of it. We
told the government that Kaduna State was one of the least paid in the
country and we want the take home of civil servants to be increased,
there and then, the governor then, Namadi Sambo constituted a committee
to look into it. The committee worked for six months, they travelled to
some states like Kogi, Katsina and Jigawa to know their salary scale,
we borrowed a leaf from Jigawa and Katsina. Fortunately for us when the
present governor, Mr Patrick Yakowa came in ,without even we going to
see him, he dusted that file with the report and then said he has
increased the take home of every civil servant in Kaduna State by
thirty per cent. That is why we are saying that the present governor of
Kaduna State is labour friendly. Because he did that single-handedly
without Labour pressurising him, and by so doing we are now equal with
states like Katsina, Niger and Kogi. There are states that are still
paying less than Kaduna State. So the issue that Kaduna is paying the
least salary, I will not agree. But I will not say that what we are
receiving as civil servants is still enough. We are still going to
discuss with government on the way forward and we are not going to
discuss anything until the 18,000 minimum wage has been implemented. If
there is anything we are going to do, we will look at it viz-a- viz the
implementation. Remember the federal government has said that by June
the federal workers will start enjoying the 18,000 minimum wage, so
during the last May Day the governor came with a provision saying that
they will only give the approval if they see the financial implication.
But as far as I am concerned, there is no negotiation
