Ngige urges workers to disregard NLC call for protest

Ukpono Ukpong, Abuja

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, has directed workers under the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to disregard the directive by their President, Comrade Ayuba Waba for a protest on Monday, May 13, describing the basis for the call as unlawful.

A statement by the Special Assistant on Media to the Minister, Nwachukwu Obidiwe, said calling out workers on a flimsy and selfish excuse of non-inauguration of the board of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) with Comrade Frank Kokori as the Chairman did not constitute a Trade Dispute as contained in the Labour Act.

“The issue in question is political. It is about the exclusive right of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to make an appointment. This is clearly outside the purview of the Trade Union and Trade Disputes Act, hence imperative for workers to go about their normal businesses.

“It is important to state here that every worker is supposed to put in eight hours of work per day, for five days in a week in line with the ILO Convention. Therefore, using the office hours for such protest without the approval of the employers is unlawful.

“The forty hours a week which the Nigerian workers subscribed to should be used for productive ventures especially in view of the new National Minimum Wage and the consequential financial adjustments.” He said

The statement further said the directive by the NLC to workers to attack the Minister and his family members anywhere they were sighted was a criminal offence, saying the Minister was already taking necessary legal action in that respect.

It added that the Minister remained the competent authority in all issues concerning labour in Nigeria, including its external relations in line with the ILO Convention, warning that internationalizing what was clearly the exclusive right of the President on political appointment was unpatriotic.

Recall, the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, at a press briefing on Thursday had ordered its members to embarrass Dr. Ngige and his family wherever they are seen especially at the airport both in Nigeria and abroad, following the violence attack on workers at his residence while on picketing line by thugs he (minister) allegedly invited.

He also called on all members and organs of NLC to begin mobilization against a national protest on Monday, May 13, even as he warned the minister against repeating the unfortunate act of hiring thugs to attack workers as they (NLC) will come prepared and ready to die in the line of protest.

“The CWC resolves to hold the member Ngige and the members of his family personally responsible for the violence attack visited on Nigerian workers and we have directed all our workers particularly at the airports in Nigeria and around the world that wherever they are seen, they should also receive the same disgrace.

“Workers at all our airports particularly in the diaspora where ITUC operates particularly in the 163 countries where ITUC have members, in all their airports, all their identity has already been circulated and that the same disgrace should be extended to him and all members of his family.

“We will embark on a national protest on Monday, May 13 against the brutalization of our members by Ngige and his thugs and has accordingly directed all our members and Civil Society ally for immediate mobilization.

“The CWC resolved that they were ready to be killed by the thugs hired by Dr. Ngige or security agents who maintained a complicitous silence while defenseless workers were being mowed down. We also want to tell him that he does not have the monopoly of violence.

“Finally, the CWC also demanded that the board of the NSITF be inaugurated with Chief Frank Kokori as Chairman without further delay, as the funds at the NSITF belong to workers, warning that anything to the contrary is capable of inviting more protests.” Said Wabba