By Our Reporter
The governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has accused the Nigerian Labour Congress of engaging in a campaign of lies against his government. The governor stated this as the NLC planned to hold a five-day warning strike to protest the ongoing rightsizing of the workforce which the government has undertaken.
According to the governor, labour has subjected Kaduna State Government “to a veritable campaign of lies and misrepresentation. Such is the absence of rigour that the NLC itself has cited in its correspondence the contents of a forged memo that first made its nasty appearance in 2019, alleging the casual engagement of workers on Grades 01-06, the imposition of maximum staff strength of 50 on each local government and the compulsory retirements of officers that are above 50.”
In an address at a press conference by a Commissioner speaking on behalf of the governor, it was further noted that “the NLC’s wanton fictions have been echoed by some other trade unionists who have variously and falsely claimed that the rightsizing exercise affects 4,000 or 20,000 or even 60,000 workers. This is not true, and neither is their claim that the Kaduna State Government has stopped paying the minimum wage. It bears noting that given the patchy level of compliance with the new minimum wage across the country, it is the state government that blazed the trail in paying it and has continued paying it at both state and local government level that some trade unionists are consistently traducing. Perhaps something other than worker interest is at play! We already know from the events of 2017 that some trade unionists privilege their ego and narrow interests above public welfare.
“Such trade unionists have used fictions and misrepresentations to build up a campaign of hysteria. The Kaduna State Government has been made aware of plans by some trade unionists, led by Ayuba Wabba, to reprise the mayhem they visited on Kaduna during their rampage of 8 November 2017. That day, in one of the most shameful displays of irresponsibility, they thrashed the premises of the Kaduna State House of Assembly as part of their futile attempt to force the government to retain 21,780 teachers who did not pass a Primary 4 competency test. The State Government sacked the failed teachers and swiftly recruited 25,000 teachers to replace them and to promote the right of the children of the poor to decent education.”
Meanwhile, the Kaduna State Government has been assured by some trade unions that they will not be part of the planned sabotage of social and economic life. We acknowledge and appreciate these assurances.
