By Kenny Ashaka and Abdullahi Hassan
The immediate past president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Abdulwaheed Ibrahim Omar has warned that the federal government’s generous giving of N5,000 a month to one million poorest Nigerians was a potent force for more corruption in the country. He also said going by available statistics, the Nigerian worker who earns N18,000 minimum wage was the poorest and most qualified for the largesse. “My own personal opinion is that I cannot call that a policy. But with every due respect to government I don’t know what they put together to believe that by doing that…don’t forget that they are trying to fight corruption, but the unfortunate thing is that…and get it from me and go and get your statistics the poorest Nigerians are the workers. They are the poorest Nigerians and I will expect that it is those in the category of N18,000 minimum wage that should be paid N5,000 in addition, not any other person,” the former labour leader recommended.
In this interview with Sunday Sun in Zaria, Abdulwaheed also spoke on why labour accepted N18,000 as minimum wage and the crisis currently rocking the NLC, among other issues.
How is it like being out of office as the immediate past Nigeria Labour Congress President, looking at it from outside?
I should say I am in what can be termed retirement, but I am really enjoying it. I am enjoying it because I am living in peace. For the first time, I will wake up and in the morning if I like I can extend my sleep without thinking that something somewhere is waiting for me; but again like any other person, life has to continue. Therefore, the struggle also has to continue in my own private way.
You no longer feel for Nigerian workers?
So much and that’s why I said one has to also continue with the life of struggle. And you may be surprised that it is a private consultancyå, not paid. Quite a number of workers have been coming here. Even yesterday, they came here. I will talk to them, give them advice and where it is necessary I will try to establish linkage between them and their local leaders of the unions they belong or even state or national leaders. So, the struggle continues in a way.
Comparatively, how do you see the Nigerian worker? Are they better off now?
Well, this is a question I will not want to answer because it might look selfish. But honestly speaking, I think Nigerian workers have been about the most tolerant workers in the world, but they are still tolerating a lot of problems. For a worker, the major thing at stake is when the month is up or whenever you fix his salary or wages pay him or her and then he will look forward to the next month. But in situations where workers will stay on end without salaries and especially in this very serious financial situation I think it is really telling, not only on the workers and their family, but also on the nation. People might not realize it, but it is also telling on the nation because it is only when people are satisfied that they can have good mental stability to be able to give in their best. Where workers are not paid, they don’t have any prospect and don’t know when they will be paid, the first thing for them is to think of how to survive and thinking of how to survive means moving out of their places of work. So it is something that governments should realize and ensure that workers are given what is due to them in order for them to give their best.
Has that any implication for the fight against corruption?
Of course, it is obvious. The impact is really obvious. You are trying to fight corruption, fine; but also lay very sound foundation. If you look at corruption even at high places, they cannot be done without workers because at least somebody will prepare voucher, somebody will go and withdraw money, somebody will manipulate the papers and so on. But where the workers are neglected they will be easy tools to be used; but if they are given their dues the less vulnerable and less pro-corruption they will be. So, fighting corruption will have to start from the beginning and the beginning is to ensure that there is a civil service that is satisfied, that nobody is owing and they will continue to do their work. If you do this you have already narrowed the scope of corruption.
You fought for workers and they got N18,000 as minimum wage even though that was not what you demanded. Would you say the N18,000 you got is realistic today?
Not at all; If you recall, our demand was N54,000 and that did not come out of the blues. We instituted committees; we consulted technical people, professionals, did a lot of economics and then came out with that figure. But because it was subjected to rigorous negotiation, tripartite negotiation for that matter, the workers, employers and government with an independent chairman…and we were able to see reasons. People came to show reasons why the money was so much that government would not be able to pay. That was how patriotically, Nigerian workers accepted N18,000 as minimum wage so that the economy will not collapse and Nigeria will have the opportunity to grow. Unfortunately, even after that, so many state governments, because they are the worst culprits, did not start paying until much later. If you look at this, it is another way of promoting corruption rather than trying to curb it.
You proposed N54,000 minimum wage then and you got N18,000. After so many years, the present leaders of NLC are still thinking of proposing N54,000. Shouldn’t the least Nigerian worker earn more than N54,000?
Well, I may not know the basis on which they anchored their proposal, but I do know that if they had followed the trend we had done, they must have also put one and one together to come up…perhaps the thinking may be let us demand for something that is reasonable, realistic and achievable rather than asking for something out of the blues and people will just laugh and say you are mad. Possibly, that is their thinking. But whatever the case may be, N18,000 in Nigeria of today is nothing to write home about. If you got the calculation well, we got this N18,000 minimum wage when the dollar was about slightly above N100. Now, I am told the dollar is close to N500 which means ordinarily you will require three poles of N18,000 for somebody at least to manage in a month.
What does that tell you?
What that tells me is that the demand should have been higher so that in the event of any negotiation you will come to something close to that. I want to believe also that the reasoning of the labour leaders may be also that since our economy is seriously based on oil production and now this is the level we are, let us rhyme with that to make our demand.
What are people like you doing to settle the factions within the fold? And with a faction that is lingering without solution, what do you think will not happen to the NLC?
I thank you very much for asking that question. And you said people like me. I as a past president am qualified to be part of the effort. Unfortunately, some people have tagged me as part of the problem. So that is what has made it difficult for me. But my heart bleeds…
Why in your opinion did they think you are part of the problem?
Some people felt or I do not know if they are still feeling that I masterminded or aided somebody to come on board. But the truth of the matter is that I have never done that. If you wouldn’t mind me giving you some little details about what happened. The key contestants were people who were very close to me. For example, the present president was the general secretary of Medical and Health Workers Union, but was also the national treasurer of Congress. Ajaero was even closer because he was the deputy president. He was the next person to me. And then the next person, Achieze was the financial secretary who was also close to me. Behind Ajaero were three deputy presidents; then vice presidents and others. The treasurer comes after the vice-president. But by interaction, I interact more with the Treasurer because among all the officers, he is the only one who was on a part time basis but had an office because he had to sign cheques, vouchers, cross check documents and so on apart from the president. So apparently our interaction with him was much more. But also again I interacted with Achieze more than Ajaero as the deputy president because his office also entails that he cross checks our books and we had a special committee, financial committee which cannot meet without him. So this complicated the issue.
Each one of them was looking up to me to play a role, but honestly before God and man, I did not play any role to either sabotage or promote anybody. In fact, the best thing I know I did was to always advise that they should interact among themselves because what I expected was that interacting among themselves would have enabled them to reach a compromise by some of them offering to sacrifice their ambition for others. It happens most of the time. Even during Adams, a number of people came out to contest, but in the end…the first one everybody except one Okamuna gave up. The second term, people withdrew and allowed only one person, Nnorom to contest with him. In my case too, seven of us came up in 2007, but through negotiations we were able to persuade others to take other positions. Until the last minute, the general secretary of NASU, Adeyemi who was a very experienced person in Congress, stepped down for me and took up the position of deputy president. But still I had to go into contest with another person, the president of NULGE, Fidelis Ede. That was what I expected. Unfortunately, I didn’t know whether they were in talking terms or not but at the end of the day the way Congress conducts its affairs at the end of the day is that you form groups; mostly two groups emerge towards election and the issue had always been who pays what. The major issue has always been about delegates. A small union cannot dream of getting any position without the support of bigger unions. That is why they have always come into groups. Each group will now try to woo other unions, but certainly if you are a formidable union with so many delegates behind you, it is much easier for you to get more unions to come and join you because they also know they stand to benefit as they are sure you are going to make it. I think this is exactly what happened.
However, at the end of the day a new dimension came in because first the group will split, most of the time it is only one or two lines that will split to the other side maybe as a protest vote or something. But in this case, when the groups split and they were casting votes it became apparent that one side was losing and the other was winning, the new dimension was the violence that followed. They started breaking everything, destroying the ballot papers and ballot boxes. That never happened before. But before then something happened and I used my little mind and experience to guard against what happened. When we finished everything about the conference it was for me to invite the credentials committee, which is the committee that will conduct the election. After the election you declare winner, raise their hands and they carry on. But then there was a convention and I perceived there could be problem because of what was going on.
So I decided not to dissolve the executive, my executive, because it was not a constitutional requirement. Somebody just brought the idea. It is just like now that we have the presidential system somebody would require Buhari to dissolve his executive shortly before they go into elections. It is not done. Even some past presidents called me and said I should dissolve the executive and I said no, it is not necessary. Let them elect the officers and from here we will hand over to them. At that time I was even eager to go to Kuru because I had already secured admission and I was waiting. But then when I didn’t dissolve the executive despite the pressure, it turned out to be a blessing because what happened was that on the day of the election everybody was casting his or her vote until around 6 am the following morning.
They started vandalizing the ballot boxes and papers on the flimsy excuse that they found one of the pamphlets carrying two ballot papers bearing the name of one person. Incidentally, it was not only that one. Almost all the three major contestants for the presidency had similar traits. So who will you say did it and after all it is human being who did this thing. So they just used that to vandalise everything. When I was told in the morning while taking my breakfast I called the general secretary to confirm what I have been told and he said Mr. President I don’t know. I said okay can we meet in the office by 9 am, he said yes. So we met in the office. People were lamenting.Then I asked for his suggestion on what should be the next line of action. He said: ‘I don’t know.’ Then I said invite all members of the National Administrative Council by text message for us to meet in Bolton White Hotel by 12 noon. By 12 noon we were there. Even members from the other side all came, but the first question they asked was: what are we doing here? In the name of what? I said in the name of Congress. The next question was: why? They said our tenure was up. I said no this is a meeting of National Administrative Council. They started raising issues and I said anybody who feels he is no longer a member can simply walk out. So I went ahead to explain to them that we are in a very serious situation but luckily we are still in charge and, therefore, we have to find solution. We continued to debate until we agreed to meet in the evening with past leaders, Comrades Sunmonu, Adams Oshiomhole and other past leaders.
So it was then that I now came out to offer an explanation. But before then people went to tell Adams that we wanted to extend our tenure. And I came up to explain that we were still in charge because, first, the constitution of NLC does not provide for a vacuum. Secondly, the constitution says officers shall be elected for four-year tenure. And I said as far as I am concerned, and it is legal also, our four-year tenure will not lapse until in the evening of the second of March. This was on February 12 or so. I said we deliberately drew back the time of the election. That means we still have time within the period of our tenure. Thirdly, I mentioned the fact that a conference can be said to have been completed if about five major things were accomplished. Delegates will assemble, they will take the presidential speech which they will deliberate on which will be hinged on policy focus, they will take the executive report which is the report of the past four years by the general secretary, how we spent their money and also maybe the budget of the next four years and so on. Then I said they will also come up with resolutions and amend the constitution where necessary.
The final thing the executive will do is to constitute the final team that will lead the organization for the next four years. I said we have done all these except the last one. So for me this conference is inconclusive and we must try to conclude it between now and the 2nd of March. It was then Adams understood and said so you are now saying that not that the conference is now useless, only that you have not concluded the election? I said yes and he said what we are going to do now is to hold an election to conclude the open conference. This was how we agreed to do the other election. We then fixed a date and time, conscious of the fact that some people were still planning to do other evil things. So, secretly we changed the venue and informed unions much closer to the time of election. That’s why we went to the Eagle Square where we decided that the ballot will take place in the open. I do not know which other system will be more democratic than that. Even at that, by the time they sorted out the ballot, those who saw they were losing started masterminding how to do the same thing. But we were very ready because we got enough security, mounted troops and policemen with their dogs. They really attempted to come in and disrupt the elections but God did not allow that. So we successfully conducted the election and we handed over.
It was Comrade Sunmonu that swore in the elected executives only for them to say they did not accept that election. They said I masterminded it and did many other things. But I kept my cool and refused to react to anything people said because God is our supreme witness. But I also expected that soon after that there would be genuine reconciliation because it is give and take. I remember when I was taking over from Adams in 2007, we had a case where somebody led a number of unions to come back. They had protested and left. We thought of how best to compensate him and we proposed that the person occupies the office of the deputy president. The constitution provided for two deputy presidents which we had already gotten. We said this one will also be called deputy president only for our tenure.
Subsequently that had to be dropped and he had to struggle for another position. We later amended the constitution to accommodate three deputy presidents and that’s what operates till today. So I had expected that the NLC should extend hands of fellowship. I know they did because they held a number of meetings but you have to have it at the back of your mind that in order to take you also have to give. I am not blaming any side because honestly I don’t have the details. This is where I will call upon my colleagues that they should remember that the Congress and the Nigerian workers are bigger than anybody. Therefore, in the spirit of comradeship, let there be that spirit of give and take so that they come together to work. I have always said that our strength lies in our unity. If we are not united we will be useless and it is the workers that will suffer. For now the worst thing that can happen is for somebody in the name of labour leadership to stand up and speak on something about the worker just for another person to counter it. I very much hope that my senior colleagues…I think the onus now lies on them to intervene, Comrade Sunmonu and Adams in particular. They should work together to bring these people to a roundtable. I would have always been willing but I have already been branded as somebody who has taken sides.
As far as you are concerned who won the election?
Ayuba won the election because this is an election that was conducted openly. All the unions were there and they all cast their votes. It’s not even a question of saying those now protesting didn’t vote. Everybody cast his or her vote and the votes were sorted. We had international observers as well. So there was no hanky panky anywhere. The thing is that those who have been victorious must have a very large heart to accommodate everybody and those who thought they were offended it is not too bad to say we are sorry, please bear with us, come and let us move on. In my language they say to kneel before a dwarf does not mean you are demeaning yourself. It only means that you have an aim to achieve.
There is a new Nigerian Labour Congress now. What is your reaction to that?
As far as I am concerned there is just one faction of the Nigerian labour leadership.
But there is a name
Yea, that is where the danger comes. What I do not know now is whether that name has been registered. I do not think it has been registered because the Registrar of Trade Unions cannot register such a name as a labour center because the only thing added there is new. You cannot do it. New Nigeria Labour Congress, I think even those people are very intelligent.
Comrade, I want your thoughts on the President Muhammadu Buhari government as a one-time labour leader?
I have always been optimistic, but I have maintained one thing and at least after the first six months of the Buhari government I have maintained that though Buhari had an experience in the office of military head of state, it is apparent that the enormity of the problems he met must have overwhelmed him, maybe not thinking that they are as much as that or even if he knew that they are as much as that he never thought the solution will be as complex as he has found them to be. Of course, the answer is not far-fetched, he operated as military head of state where he can wake up, all he needed is to consult with some few Generals and reel out decrees; but in a democracy the interests are so many and if you want to correct anything there is no way you can cater for the interests of everybody.
Once you start catering for the interests of everybody you will be static and you can’t do anything. I think that is the major thing that Buhari is facing. I am sure as a government he has been struggling to go out and resolve this issue. I think in a way he has been lucky and in many ways also he has not been lucky. He is lucky because by my calculation and perception, God has given him a committed vice president and one that is thinking along the same line with him. But where he has not been lucky is in the mainstream of the party membership. Majority of the people, including majority of the present cabinet may not be sharing his ideals. They are just managing to manage him just as he is just managing to manage them. But it is very, very complex. Well, he is the chief executive, but what does he execute.
He cannot execute everything with presidential fiat and that is what many people are cashing in on. If Buhari wants to move fast there are people who will be ready to remind him that he is no longer a military man and in trying to comply with the laid down principles of democracy, people will say he is too slow. This is not the Buhari we thought of. Unfortunately again, whether we like it or not, age is also a factor. He is even trying and that is why I said he has been lucky to get a very formidable vice president. In reshuffling the cabinet, unless he is very careful it is just going to be the same thing because he may drop some people only as a result of pressure from some people and he will bring in some people also only as a result of pressure from some people. So the going continues. I really pity them and unfortunately, very unfortunately, Buhari came in at a time of recession. I have always said that this is not something created as a result of the change of government, but a natural happening. And this recession is not only happening to Nigeria. If during Jonathan’s administration oil was sold for $100 to $110 and you now take over and the thing crashed and you are selling for even as low as $35, you should know that something is wrong. And you know that oil is our major source of foreign exchange. So, the problem will have to come. In fact, I even commend them to some extent on the way they have been trying to manage the economy. I can tell you that if not because of this fight against corruption…assuming that nobody is fighting corruption and this recession sets in, by now the dollar would have become almost N900 because there would have been scramble for the dollar to be shared among few elites. And this dollar would have been brought in officially, using Nigerian money, but then it would be in the hands of few Nigerians. That would have compounded the problem of inflation in the country. I am not speaking for anybody but as always I am speaking my mind.
President Buhari declared sometime ago that he would give priority to poverty alleviation by commencing the payment of N5,000 monthly to one million poor Nigerians. Some people believe that this gesture does not rank high as an economic policy…
(Cuts in) Honestly, let me tell you. My own personal opinion is that I cannot call that a policy. But with every due respect to government I don’t know what they put together to believe that by doing that…don’t forget that they are trying to fight corruption, but the unfortunate thing is that…and get it from me and go and get your statistics the poorest Nigerians are the workers. They are the poorest Nigerians and I will expect that it is those in the category of N18,000 minimum wage that should be paid N5,000 in addition, not any other person. I have my reasons. Divide N18,000 by 30, assuming 30 days, how much would you get? You will be thinking about N315. Now consider those with the lowest form of jobs, maybe a nail cutter; he can get about N1,000 in a day. A tomato seller will get maybe N2,000 to N3,000 in a day. The person who sells sugarcane will get almost the same amount in a day, but a worker will still be getting N315 in a day. So if you are looking for the poorest Nigerian, there are no two ways to it, the Nigerian worker is it. That’s why I personally feel it is not a very good policy. It is good to help Nigerians but the way to do it I think the priority is being misplaced. Now workers are asking for an increase in minimum wage you are not talking about that…unless you want to streamline the policy like it is done in the western world by registering those who are jobless. If you do this and you find evidence of people not doing any job, then he can be given the N5,000.
But to say you want to commence payment of N5,000 to poor Nigerians without definition of who the poorest Nigerian is I think…it is a good policy because it would make money circulate more, but is it targeted at those who actually need this money? Secondly in doing that what the federal government will simply do is to say state governments you will do it because I do not see any state governor that will allow federal government to come and distribute N5,000 in his state. He would claim this is my territory and then the federal government will say okay we will give 15,000 people in your state, we will be giving you the money. That will be the beginning of another cycle of corruption if we are not careful because you will have to define the poorest person who is qualified to collect the money. If you do not do that the bulk of it would end up in big pockets and we will be back to square one.
Then the vicious circle continues. If you have to bring out policies you have to do a thorough work. I am not anti-government, but sometimes my major problem is that whatever I see and regardless of whoever is involved I will like to say my mind. You can see the example from primary school feeding programme. That looks even more defined than this one; but even that one has problems because it is the state government that will do the feeding and they will be reimbursed by the federal government. There are certain things that no matter how ambitious you are you don’t do them that way. If I make this next statement don’t say it is the decay of the civil service. The politicians are broad minded; of course, what they want is the end result and if somebody says I will be giving N5,000 to five million Nigerians every month, fine it is a good policy but the issue is if you do not define it very well then you have a problem. So I think that should have been the role of the civil servants in many respects. The problem is we do not lay foundations before constructing roads.
N5,000 monthly for one million people translates to N5 billion per month. Can the government sustain this spending over time?
Government can afford it. Federal Government can afford N5 billion every month comfortably. My only problem is: who are the poorest people? Have they been defined? And like I have told you Nigerian workers are the poorest. The only person poorer than a worker in Nigeria is somebody who is idle. Of course, you know that if you do not move you can’t get anything. But as far as I am concerned and it is a fact, verifiable, if you go anywhere in this country, the moment you see somebody doing something to earn money on a daily basis that person is better than a worker who earns N18,000 minimum wage. If the government is targeting those who are idle then they must be defined. If government wants to define poor people they must not exclude workers. There are those workers that are actually the poorest in Nigeria.
Is there no other viable scheme that this N5 billion can be committed?
Of course, there could be. One of the viable schemes that this amount can be committed is empowerment. There are people with smaller jobs that can be empowered to have better capital to expand their businesses. But again, like I said if you are doing that to people who are jobless you have to have a standard register where all those who will be qualified are known by laid down criteria, but not just to say we are dishing out N5 billion every month. If care is not taken if you do it, before the end of this year, you will hear complaint from states that the money is not coming and the government will say we have been releasing. Then when you come to the conduit pipe you will encounter blockade. That’s just the thing.
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