…as Ngige tackles NLC over petition on workers killing

The Minsiter of Labour and Emplyment Chris Ngige  has faulted the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC)  over its petition   on the issue of alleged killing of workers  in the country to the Committee of Standards of the ILO. Ngige described the NLC`s petition as  outright falsehood, adding that  no Nigerian has been killed for reasons of  […]

The Minsiter of Labour and Emplyment Chris Ngige  has faulted the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC)  over its petition   on the issue of alleged killing of workers  in the country to the Committee of Standards of the ILO.

Ngige described the NLC`s petition as  outright falsehood, adding that  no Nigerian has been killed for reasons of  being a worker or issues linked to  unionism.  He said, “To do so especially at an international level is against the interest of Nigeria. 

 “People have lost their lives in parts of the country due to general insecurity and such incidents are clearly non-discriminatory. Anybody could be affected. So, this is as a result of general insecurity. For anybody therefore to come to the ILO and claim that people are being killed because they are workers is an unacceptable tissue of lies.”   

The Minister  said the retrenchment of unqualified teachers in Kaduna State which the NLC also  stated in its petition was being tackled at home and needed no mention at the international labour forum.

 “We don’t need to wash our dirty linen in the public . My ministry summoned both the Kaduna State Government and the Nigerian Union of Teachers and they presented their case. We know the truth and don’t need to bring such to the ILO. Some of the people disengaged  by the Kaduna State Government from the records tendered to us are not qualified teachers.”

“They don’t have the prerequisite certificate, competence. They got smuggled into the system but we don’t need to come here tell the world that Nigerians get jobs with fake certificates. We don’t need to engage in such demarketing of the nation,” said the minister.

 He added that based on agreement with the Kaduna State Government, about ten thousand out of the number that failed the qualification test have re-applied, and the Kaduna State has re-absolved some of them, promising to move others to other jobs, adding it has  recruited more qualified teachers into the system.

The ILO, however, decided to send a high powered team to investigate the matter.