‘Nigerians are not earning a living wage’

The National Assembly recently voted to transfer the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive to the Concurrent Legislative List; what is your take on that?That is absolute wickedness on the part of the lawmakers. These lawmakers are not representing themselves but are representing the people. The salaries and allowances of the lawmakers are in the […]

The National Assembly recently voted to transfer the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive to the Concurrent Legislative List; what is your take on that?
That is absolute wickedness on the part of the lawmakers. These lawmakers are not representing themselves but are representing the people. The salaries and allowances of the lawmakers are in the exclusive list and we then wonder why that of Nigerian workers should be relocated?
I believe strongly that there is no right-thinking person in the National Assembly that will wake up one morning and decide to relocate the wage law to the concurrent list. It is sad that casualization and outsourcing are fast becoming a norm in our work arena.
I expect the National Assembly to come up with tough measures to checkmate these illegal and wicked practices and not to further pauperize the already poor Nigerian workers with lower wages.
In Nigeria, there are so many people who are dependent on the few people that are working. An average worker has more than 10 people depending on him or her for survival. The implication is that 10 people depend on one worker to survive and when that one person is facing crisis in his or her workplace, 11 people are having the problem.

You have advocated for the passage of the PIB by the National Assembly, what are your expectations when it is passed?
Upon passage, the PIB will address a lot of things in the system. Just imagine the last appointment in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) where a Deputy Group Managing Director was made; this position is not in the law that sets up the NNPC.
Another example is the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), which has a board established for it by the law setting it up, but what do we have? We have a situation where since the PPPRA was moved to the office of the minister, the board disappeared.
The NNPC which equally has a board, but it is not in existence because individuals are more powerful than the system. So, if the National Assembly passes the PIB, the NNPC will be empowered to operate like every other National Oil Company (NOC) that is independent and a profit centre.
But to make this happen, there must be serious amendments to the bill to make the NNPC a national oil company of our dreams. We want to see a national oil company that will be listed on the stock exchange where Nigerians can buy shares and have a say on how it is run.
It is believed that issues such as the need to make the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) independent as well as strengthening other institutions are delaying the passage.
Yes the industry unions are in total support of that. We believe that the DPR must be independent of government control. It must be empowered to monitor the sector without any hindrance.

How far has the committee on regulation of labour issues in the oil and gas sector set up by the Ministry of Labour and Productivity gone on its work?
The idea behind setting up the committee was a good one. We have gone into our work and are able to conclude the policy but the implementation is the problem. We all know very well that the Ministry of Labour and Productivity does not have the power to enforce policy. If the ministry has some levels of enforcement authority, the level of labour abuse in the country would have been reduced to the barest minimum. The job of the technical committee is concluded and we believe that if all the companies involved allow the policy to be implemented, it will go a long way in addressing most of the thorny labour issues we have in the oil and gas sector.

Elections during the 2011 National Delegates Conference of the NLC generated bad blood amongst unions with some of them still aggrieved to this very moment. Do you see that as a threat to the next one coming up in early 2015?
I don’t see that as a threat to the election. It is very unfortunate that as workers or pressure groups, the hope of democracy, we find ourselves in this kind of situation. it is only in Sudan that there is over a hundred labour centres and you may want to ask if that has brought that unity of purpose to fight any anti-labour practice, the answer is no.
That is why if somebody begin to think about polarisation of the system, I feel very sad. I’ve been one of those who have advocated that as workers’ representatives, we have every responsibility to protect them. We do not need to fight ourselves whatever the differences as Nigerian workers we need to come back and ask ourselves where did we go wrong, where have we fared well , that is the issue.

Are you contesting for the NLC presidency next year?
Yes I am in the race.

What policies and programmes will you implement to maintain the vibrancy of the NLC?
The current president of congress has done very well in my opinion. The topmost priority is to foster unity and try and bring everybody under the same umbrella.

What should Nigerians expect from you if you win the election?
There are key expectations of Nigerians that are also legitimate. They want labour to be stronger than it is today and I share that vision as well. My team will also strive to get Nigerian workers a living wage. Nigerians are not earning a living wage.
If I come in as the NLC president, fighting to ensure a living wage for Nigerians will be a key feature of our administration. Some of the challenges we are facing are as a result of our inability to pursue laws in the National Assembly that protect Nigerian workers. One of the things I want to do if given the opportunity to serve is draw a template in form of a bill that will protect Nigerian workers and also guarantee their rights across all the sectors.
The pension law is also a cause of worry. This is because I ask myself if money is made for a few Nigerians or do workers themselves have some share in the utilization of the money they are saving. We are aware that the National Pension Commission is managing above four trillion naira. We ask what impact this money has on the lives of Nigerian workers.
I think we must create the platform where we can ask that those contributing to the growth of the pension fund must and should remain shareholders in whatever decisions that are made concerning the investment of that money.
Above all, my priority is to promote unity among labour unions. I will want to appeal to those who think labour should be scattered to come back and join in ensuring that labour becomes a toast of Nigerians once again.