By Favour Nnabugwu

Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory, FCT  has said it would summon all road contractors to the National Assembly over gratis and discriminatory treatment to local employees and labourers.

Senator Smart Adeyemi, Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT was in Abuja recently, fussed with the intolerant treatment foreign companies exposed Nigerian workers to, adding that the legislatures would take it up.

He said, “During our oversight function, we went to the Chinese rail project and interacted with some of the Nigerian workers on site. We discovered that the Nigerian workers were paid below our country’s minimum wage of N12, 000 and we asked the Chinese guys if they were aware of the Nigeria’s minimum wage.  They said that they were not aware. So we told them that the minimum wage in Nigeria in N18, 000 and they were given us excuses”.

It was on this premise that the committee decided that it would summon all the contractors starting from Abuja to come and explain the reason for the discrimination between expatriates and the local employees.

In the same vein, Senator Smart also noted that foreign contractors had for a long time ripped the country of its resources without any payment or royalty in spite of the high cost of contract charges in the country.

“When projects are awarded in Abuja, l discovered that they cost more. Although they would have submitted a bill of quantity but l see that they excavate gravels and granites which they use free in spite of the high cost of contract.

That is one issue that the National Assembly wants to go into, if actually those materials are taken into consideration when projects are awarded because when you award contract for a project for which the bill of quantity was submitted comprising the quantity of granites, gravels and sands to be used, they still go ahead to excavate free of charge.

“We will summon all the contractors to know if they have paid for those granites, for the sands and gravels and for them to present their evidence of payment. We will invite the Federal Ministry of Mines and Power and also get people to go and take measurement of most of those projects done and if we are able to establish that Nigeria has been cheated in any way, we will take it up,” he said.

The FCT committee chairman implored FCT management to provide the committee with the rate of excavating granites, gravels and sand per tones and the cost at which they could be sold which would serve as a basis for charging contractors.

“We see this action as a clear way to use Nigeria’s resources without paying for them and we want the charges on those materials to be a source of internal revenue generation for the FCTA, ” he said

FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed admitted that he is aware of some of the ill treatment on Nigerian employees by foreign companies.

He said, “When l heard about the unwholesome behavior of the Chinese people over their misuse or post labour treatment including where some young ladies were exposed to other things other than what they had been employed to do within the Nigerian context. We have investigated and we will investigate the issue of payment”.

Continuing, he said: “ We have allowed ourselves to be dragged for too long by foreign personnel, they do not treat their staff that have the same qualification as their Nigerian workers the same. I think we need a law to change that attitude of foreign personnel to Nigerians”.