Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, ?recently spoke with labour correspondents on the contributions of the Labour movement to the attainment of independence 51 years ago; the efforts of President Goodluck Jonathan administration to ensure efficient and productive workforce as well as peaceful industrial relations. MOSES JOHN was there.
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What will you say was the role of labour in independence struggle??
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From historical perspectives, the force of the Nigerian workers towards the fight for independence cannot be over-emphasized. I want to situate the issue of Nigeria’s independence to the era where the Nigerian workers played a very prominent role; you may recall that the coal miners agitated for independence. So the labour movement in Nigeria has been part of the concerted effort by Nigerians of the pre-independence era to fight and agitate for independence. And I think that is what informed the inclusion of ‘the labour of our heroes past will not be in vain’, and these heroes can be situated in the people who fought for the freedom of Nigeria from colonial administration.
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Now,we are are 51 years old as an independent nation.We celebrated our golden jubilee last year and we are looking forward again to celebrate Nigeria nation with the amalgamation of North and South which took place in 1914 by the 2014, we will achieve 100 years centenary. But now we are more concerned with independence; there is no doubt that the Nigerian workforce has contributed immensely to the emancipation of Nigerian nationhood. The emancipation of the civil rights of the Nigerian workers has been supported seriously by this administration: I am not saying this because I am part of the administration; I will still say it if I am not part of the administration.
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Even before I got into the board, I have monitored the labour development in the country, and I can say that labour had not had it so successful with an administration since all the agitations. What do I mean? I mean that the administration of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has been pro-people, pro-Nigerian workers and has done everything to make sure that the rights of Nigerian workers is protected through his programme. It is on record; no matter how difficult it has become for some people to pay N18, 000 minimum wage, it is during the administration of Dr. Jonathan that the Act that prescribed the N18,000 minimum wage came into force. This is as a result of the fact that, that particular item is on the Exclusive list. We are constitutionally bound to legislate on it.
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We are constitutionally bound when it becomes law to observe the provision of that Act. It is within the same period of this administration that the historical 53.6 per cent approximately in wage increase took place at the Federal Civil Service level which has been totally confused by so many people, public opinion analysts, television commentators, and radio commentators with Wage Act. They are totally different things – one preceded the other. In 2010, the President approved a salary increase for the workers at the Federal Government level. That does not affect the states because that is federalism in practice. That is the President’s determination to make sure that nobody is shortchanged at the federal level.
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That is Mr. President’s own way of showing that the Nigerian workers deserve a good pay, deserve a living wage. Shortly after, the Minimum Wage Act was signed into law by Mr. President. The N18, 000 minimum wage is different and distinct by interpretation and application from salary wage increase. So, at the time we implemented it, most people distorted the real issues. They took minimum wage as another shortcut to salary increase. No economy can survive through heavy salary increment within a period of less than twelve months. And this administration, too, in order to make sure that salary increment becomes a scientific and a mechanical process, has put in place a mechanism into the salary structure that it could be self-adjusted.?
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How will you described Jonathan’s relationship with the labour movement ?
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For a period of time, no President has associated with labour the way our President, Dr. Jonathan, has done. May 1, 2010, the President was with Nigerian workers at the Eagle Square for the May Day celebration and he stood there, took all the salutations by way of the parade of all the various unions. Over 80 of them marched and he took records of the inscriptions on each of every placard and even took some home to study what are the real agitations of the Nigerian workers. At the end of the whole exercise, it formed the basis for his ordering at that day that myself and the the former Head of Civil Service, Chief Oransanye, to make sure that these things are done.?
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Again, this administration, because of the priority Mr. President places and has placed on the work place health and security of the Nigerian workers, came out with a law called the Employee Compensation Act. This Act replaced the outdated and archaic Workman Compensation Act. There are various other executive bills that are now before the current National Assembly as inherited from the previous ones that have gone on to first, second reading. Maybe, in the near future, they will go in to public hearing.?
Unemployment is one problem confronting Nigeria, what will say on Job creation.?
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The president, in his desire to make sure that the Nigerian workers and the Nigerian populace get a good job, instituted a Presidential Committee on Job Creation. It was headed by businessman, Aliko Dangote, and the report was submitted to government and it led to a job summit. One significant aspect of that job summit is that Nigeria will create a million jobs every year. And again, my ministry, through me as the minister, presented a policy on local content with respect to employment and it was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), and that local content initiative is in addition to National Policy on Employment Creation (NAPEC) which is a document of this ministry.
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What that local content initiative, part of the policy, intends to achieve is that every programme and contract of this current administration and the administrations to come in future, would indicate the job content of that programme and it made it mandatory. So it is a good policy. Within the space of less than two years, we were equally able to achieve a standardization and regulation of casualization and contract staffing in the oil sub-sector. It is a regulation I issued when I became minister the first time. It was issued on May 21st 2010. It is accepted by all stakeholders in the oil sub-sector of the economic, both the IOCs, the unions operating within the sector.
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Other relevant stakeholders also accepted it as a working document. And in such, it is a scout and prepared in such a way that it could be adapted in other sector of economic like banking where the issue of casualization has become an issue now. And there is a policy on productivity which is awaiting the approval of National Economic Council; it is a body made up of serving governors and other stakeholders.
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How about workers agitations for strike? ?
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Well, we have developed a procedure that is not only pro-active but preventive in all ramifications. It is preventive ?becasue, instead of waiting till certain things occur within the labour circle, then we try to prevent it like we are trying to prevent ASUU from going back to the old days of shutting the universities for a very long period. So, what is happening now is that they (ASUU) have sent a signal, a warning and we will set up a committee; so the committee is a preventive measure and we have totally agreed with what the President of our great country espoused during the United Nations General Assembly – that it is better to prevent certain things. He came with a preventive foreign policy on terrorism that we need to dialogue, and these are the cardinal principles of tripartism in labour. We would always engage labour.
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They will engage us. So it is a mutual engagement, but we engage them the more because we want to be pro-active and what it means is that, it is all about social dialogue. So, we have adopted, conciliation, reconciliation and we mediate and then arbitration becomes the last point of this. For them, strike is always the end point and that is why strike is to be managed properly; it is the last thing but you find out that in some cases it is not usually like that, but we were guided by the Labour Act; we are guided by other extant laws in labour administration. We will still continue to encourage trade unions to dialogue. We will encourage them to always engage us and we will engage them. So what could be solved by peaceful dialogue will save money, will save time. After all, this country belongs to everybody.
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In as much as I can continue counting what have been the achievements of this administration in terms of industrial relations with labour, labour equally owes government a civil responsibility to not always come out confrontational anytime a policy comes out because most of our policies are tailored to meet the needs of ordinary persons in the country. The government will come out with pro-people policies and I believe that the Nigeria labour community will continue to buy into the policies and we will discuss with them before such policies come out. And there are issues that need national attention, so it is not always them against us.?
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To what extent is the discussion with the organized Labour on the subject of fuel subsidy??
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We should commence discussions with various labour unions in terms of looking at how best to go with deregulation – because certain petroleum products need to be deregulated, and what government would do in such circumstances to alleviate or to continue to alleviate the problem of the Nigerian people. Government is desirous to fix roads that have been decayed for a long time, infrastructure that has been long gone, so most of the problems that has besieged this country did not begin just yesterday and the solution to the problem are open solutions, and they are not solutions that you pick from the shelves.
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They are solutions that follow an articulated good policy and programme of government and what government has put down now is a transformation agenda that could take care of all those decay in all phases of Nigerian project. Now there is a programme to begin to address the issues. What I urge and solicit from Nigerian workers is their total support because we are coming out from some psyche of government which is holding us captive, captive, captive. But now government has opened up – you see the president talking and he means everything he says. You see his appointees talk; we are passionate about this country, to correct things and to do things the way it is done globally. You can just compare the set of ministers now and the set of ministers you’ve had over the years. ?
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With all sense of honesty, you find out that some of us now are so passionate that we want to finish this transformation agenda as quick as possible, and Mr. President is one person who is so passionate about it. You need to have come to the independence lecture and listen to Mr. Robert, who is a journalist, the way he took a critic about the country and the things he said and the response of Mr. President. It takes a lot of guts for somebody to allow people to come and say ‘were-examine or self-examine our programmes as a nation’.?
So I urge Nigerians to be patient, things are shaping up. Some solutions to this our problems are not microwaving.?
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What will you say on power and rail projects which the President promises Nigerians??
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Well the President has promised to deliver on power, it does not take a day to put a turbine, it takes a long time but the Nigerians should be rest assured that there will be an instrumental increase in power supply and we believe once that one is in place with our railway project, fixing of the roads and some other things, such as agriculture which is one of the best programmes that the president has put out in the transformational agenda. Why I am interested in it is because it is a value change programme that will create jobs just like power will be a catalyst to creating jobs and that is diversification.
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The President understands that we need to diversify this economy because it has been a mono-product economy. Oil contributes about 90% of what we get into the federation account. So by the time agriculture is done the way Mr. President has put it out to be and with the support of Nigerians, we will not only diversify the economy, not only adding to value, but will create jobs which is part of value added advantage of that program. And this will run through all sector of the economy, employment and job creation is a key.?
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