—Says military administrator can’t take salute in democracy

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA — AS Nigerian workers join their colleagues all over the world to mark May Day celebration, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on Wednesday, advised workers in Edo State not to succumb to the threat by governor Monday Okpebholo to come to the stadium for the celebration, instead they should stay at the secretariat of their various unions.

The NLC also said it was an aberration for an administrator in Rivers State to take salute when the country is under democratic government.

President of the NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, who stated this while fielding questions from journalists in Abuja, lamented the use of threat against workers by the Edo State governor as well as the resort to recruitment of non workers to assemble at the stadium for the Workers Day rally.

NLC threatened that if the governor, Senator Okpebholo continued to recognise someone not known to the union as state chairman and and an acting secretary, the labour Center would match him force for force after the workers day.

Comrade Ajaero said: “Outside the frenzy of May Day, in Edo, there are complications. The state governor or state government introduced a new person who is claiming to be chairman of NLC there.

“And another one is claiming to be acting secretary of NLC. And we have our chairman in Edo state. And they said the man was in support of the former governor (Godwin Obaseki) and that he made political statements that the state will boil and all that under the former governor.”

Ajaero contended that what the governor ought to have done was to report the Chairman to the national leadership of the NLC for disciplinary action if found going contrary to the union’s statue books, instead of taking laws into his hands.

“And we’ll go to our statute book to see if he’s found wanting. If he’s found wanting, we discipline him according to our rules. You can’t ask an auditor, even if that guy is incapacitated, auditor can’t take over.

“We have our rules, we have our processes. You can’t remove any official there without writing us. And we invite you, investigate the people, set up a committee to listen to them on their issues.”

He further continued: “Maybe after May Day, we’ll see him (Senator Okpebholo). We’ll visit him and do eyeball to eyeball with him. Because that’s not how to behave. We set up a committee, the Ministry of Labor intervened. A joint committee of Ministry of Labor and NLC visited him and they met with him.

“He promised that he was going to reach out to me for us to resolve the problem. When I waited for him,he couldn’t. I called the line they gave me, he was not picking.They gave me another one that it was his WhatsApp line. I called, he was not picking. I sent messages but up to now, no response.

“But he’s busy issuing threats, trying to get people who are not workers to come to the stadium tomorrow (May 1) for him to take salute. If he does that, if he continues that way, we’re going to relate with him directly.

“And secondly, he’s not properly implementing the issue of minimum wage. Edo has been a very important state for us. When minimum wage was N18,000, Adams (Oshiomhole) started paying N25,000. It was ahead of other states. Even all these states that are paying something, Edo was paying higher than that. (Godwin) Obaseki came and minimum wage was N30,000.

He was paying N40,000, higher than any other state in the country.

“And Obaseki even started paying N70,000 before negotiation (for the current minimum wage). He started implementing April, May, June, July before the federal government. He said if the federal government negotiates anything beyond this, he was going to pay. The governor we have there is not interested, he is trying to determine for us how to celebrate May Day.

“May Day is for workers. Is Mayday governor’s day?. So if he tries this one now, we’ll visit him because this is getting too much. If we decide to cancel Mayday tomorrow (today), we’ll do it. So, why will he issue orders? He’s threatening that he’s going to sack workers that didn’t come, that all Permanent secretaries should come.

“Is that how to run a government? Is that what happens in a democracy? Well, I’m giving him all the latitude. He’s not an organizer to organize the unions for us. So that’s the situation in Edo.

“That of Edo is different from the situation in Rivers state. I think even the sole administrator and others have asked for a meeting with the people there today. And we have asked them to go and listen to him.So we are open about it. So we don’t have any problem in Edo. We have our chairman.”

Ajaero said that the NLC would not allow workers to come out in Rivers with their anger, saying that it may degenerate to  something else .

“Even since he came into office, he has stopped the pension, gratuity and all that of people there. So we want to take control of what is happening in Rivers,” he said.