NLC VOWS TO RIDICULE NGIGE IN GENEVA OVER NSITF CRISIS

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, has said Nigerian workers will take their campaign against the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, to the centenary celebration of the International Labour Congress in Geneva, Switzerland.

Wabba stated this on Monday during a protest by the workers in Abuja against the Minister over the composition of the Governing Board of the National Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

The labour union was also protesting against the delay in the inauguration of the Board of the NSITF by the Minister more than three years after the expiration of the tenure of the previous Board.

Monday’s protest took place about the same time the NSITF Board was being inaugurated at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Led by Mr Wabba and the presidents of the affiliate labour unions, the protesters moved from Labour House in Abuja to the Ministry of Labour and Employment building at the Federal Secretariat where the protesters blocked the private entrance of the Minister into his ministry.

Among the protesters were members of ASUU, SSANU, NUPENG, NULGE and other unions.

Most of the union leaders who spoke passed a vote of no confidence on the Minister, accusing him of deliberately delaying the inauguration of the NSITF Board in order to loot the fund in the scheme as the sole administrator.

Addressing the protesters, Wabba accused Dr Ngige of masterminding the impasse in order to retain control of the NSITF money.

“We will expose the minister because even under the military rule, force against armless workers was not witnessed. The law says the right to protest and picket does not require authorisation but police presence, ”he said.

“We call on the Federal Government to come clean and offer an explanation for the removal of Frank Kokori as the NSITF board chairman even before his inauguration, after being named by the government and passing security screening.

“Kokori is eminently qualified to lead NSITF. The only thing he has not done is stealing money. Our money has been stolen by these people. Failure to consult labour before taking the decision in NSITF is in itself an illegality, ” he said.

In his remarks, the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Biodun Ogunyemi, said the attack on workers was “an attempt to erode democracy which had been planted in Nigeria.

Mr Ogunyemi asked President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a powerful panel to investigate the attack on workers at Ngige’s residence.

The President of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), William Akporeha, said although the presidency had spoken on Mr Kokori’s case, the workers were not ignorant of the fact that Kokori’s uprightness and integrity were factors that were used against him.

Labour and the Ministry had disagreed on the chairmanship of the Board, but on Sunday the Presidency said the decision of Dr Ngige on the matter had the approval of President Buhari, adding that the Board would be inaugurated on Monday.

It also redeployed the labour campaigner, Frank Kokori, to the Labour Onstitute in Kwara State.

Kokori was earlier appointed by the President to head the Board of NSITF, but the Minister opposed his nomination, while the NLC supported it.