National President of the Trade Uni
on Congress, Comrade
Bobboi Bala Kaigama, has come down hard on some
governors, warning that any state governor who cannot pay
workers salaries should resign.
In this interview ,the TUC boss also
comments on the stance of joint labour on the recent hike in
electricity tariff and his assessment of the Buhari
administration.
Excerpts:
Can you comment on the recent actions of the Trade Union
Congress under your watch?
We have had actions recently that were from joint labour;
that is the NLC, TUC and our civil society allies where we
mobilised workers across the federation to protest the
increase in electricity tariff from 45 percent to 65 percent.
The second was in Imo State where the government
suspended over 6,000 workers. We had to go there to
mobilise the workers and our civil society allies and in all,
we had a successful outing. On the part of the increase in
electricity tariff, apart from picketing the NERC office, we
also went to picket all the GENCOS and DISCOS
throughout the federation and we finally submitted a protest
letter to the National Assembly in Abuja, both to the
Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Rep
resentatives. We are pleased to announce that the National
Assembly quickly waded into the matter and the Senate
President and Speaker addressed us and instructed that there
should be a joint committee of both Houses committees on
Power and Labour. The Committee was saddled with the
responsibility of mobilising the stakeholders. Sooner than
later, a public hearing would be conducted on the issue of
this electricity tariff and even a review of the privatisation
process.
On the issue of hike in electricity tariff, are you convinced
with the reasons put forward by the Minister of Power,
Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola?
Since he has
explained the rationale behind the hike, would joint labour
rather see any reason with his opinion?
That is giving the reason after the damage has been done.
What damage are you talking about?
I mean after the increase. The law says you engage
stakeholders in series of meetings and give the reason. The
engagement has been one-sided. The DISCOS and the
GENCOS simply engaged their own allies and the National
Assembly, organised labour, the electricity consumers
community, were all not involved. So, who did they consult
before the increase? Again, there is a court order in place
against NERC and DISCOS.
Whether or not you were duly consulted before the hike, does
organised labour consider the reasons given by the Minister
valid?
We are not against increase in electricity tariff and please
note that. We are saying that before the increase, certain
things must be done. In consonance with the memorandum of
understanding that was signed in 2013 between these
companies and the government, they were given a gestation
period to ensure that all consumers in this country have
metres. That condition has not been made, so, shall we con
tinue in this activity of estimated billing because we want to
give some people time to meet the conditions? We say no!
If you truly want to engage Nigerians, provide the prepaid
meters to consumers. They just levy people whatever they
want and that is what we are against. When the GSM
operators came on board, they didn’t charge before providing
the services. They provided the service first and that is what
we want. Despite that the costs were high, Nigerians paid
for the service.
In essence, what are the demands of joint labour to NERC
and the government of the day, by extension?
This is it: Let us get to the status quo where stakeholders
can sit down and then we can call back our allies who have
gone to court and we can then agree to negotiate.
How would you assess and rate the present administration
of President Muhammadu Buhari?
Well, I keep saying that on the part of fighting corruption,
kudos to him and we encourage him to do more. On the
part of delivery on their campaign promises, we say yes to
that too. During the campaigns, they made mouth-watering
promises and coming on board now, they have seen the dif
ference between campaign promises and the reality on ground.
We implore politicians to always see the reality on ground
before committing themselves. There can be u-turns in the
ideals of government like the idea of going back on the
promise of payment of N5,000 to unemployed Nigerians. We
also hope that they would improve on solid minerals, power,
all to create more jobs.
You once disclosed that the TUC, under your leadership, has
embarked on housing schemes as a welfare package for its
members. To what extent has that gone?
In Abuja, we have two sites under development. As I said,
we have a collaboration with the NLC for another one. We
have also commissioned similar projects in collaboration with
Federal Mortgage Bank in Kaduna, Katsina, Abuja, Kano,
Enugu, Taraba, Niger, and the rest. In Lagos also, we
signed an MoU with our developer to commence projects in
Lekki and Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.
Housing projects are known to be affordable to just the
rich. How would low income earners of the lower cadre
benefit from such?
No high cadre worker would get a room and a parlour or
2-bedroom flat. All the categories are being catered for and
you key into the one you can pay conveniently. The mortgage
bank has an affordability test to ensure that people can pay
so that you don’t spend half of your salaries paying.
When labour unions go to picket erring employers, we hardly
hear what is done next about the whole saga. Why is that
so?
When you picket, it is for you to now give room for
negotiations and that is what we do.
Are you still of the opinion that state governors who can’t
pay the minimum wage should resign?
Yes! The State Creation Committees, as at then, convinced
the government that states can pay at least the salaries of
the work force of the states and the fact is there and it is
incontrovertible. For some governors to now say they cannot
pay is not acceptable by us.
But should they be blamed, going by the reality that some
of these states are not financially buoyant enough?
They should be blamed because it is not about their IGR.
They are lazy. The state governors should resign because you
are not going in accordance with the commitment made while
calling for the creation of that state. When it was rosy, you
never saved for the rainy day and none of them has made
any investment that can sustain the states. They have decided
to use public finds for their private needs and on
campaigns. Where is the excess crude money that was
distributed? These are questions we should ask them. Gov
ernment is a continuum and we must be responsible and
accountable. If you are not prepared for governance, you
give way.
But monthly subventions are not equal and some states are
richer than others?
We are saying that we can survive without oil money
because we have abundant agricultural resources, mineral
resources, solid minerals and tourism potentials. People
should wake up and think rather than waiting for the oil
money to come at the end of the month.
What is the TUC doing to encourage and assist government
for sustainable development, particularly in the area of job
creation?
The war against corruption has started and that would block
all the leakages in fund management so we can invest in
areas that would create jobs. Monies are being recovered
from looters and we need government to tell the people how
much is being recovered so the government could gain the
trust of the people. The idea of the TSA is also welcome
to block the leakages.
What is the level of confidence reposed in the present administration?
We have confidence in the present administration because he
has proven to Nigerians that he has integrity by declaring his
assets and that of the vice president. We doff our hat for
him and encourage them to continue to be upright and
sanitise the system for the benefit of all.
Among your demands from the government of the day,
which would you consider as the priority of joint labour?
We have so many. First is the case of ensuring that
workers salaries are paid promptly. Also, you don’t promote
workers without arrears and benefits. We also need the
government to strengthen the anti-graft agencies in fighting
corruption, particularly the judiciary. We should also look at
the idea of providing adequate power to Nigerians and this
has a value chain on jobs creation.
Source: The Sun.
on Congress, ComradeBobboi Bala Kaigama, has come down hard on some
governors, warning that any state governor who cannot pay
workers salaries should resign.
In this interview ,the TUC boss also
comments on the stance of joint labour on the recent hike in
electricity tariff and his assessment of the Buhari
administration.
Excerpts:
Can you comment on the recent actions of the Trade Union
Congress under your watch?
We have had actions recently that were from joint labour;
that is the NLC, TUC and our civil society allies where we
mobilised workers across the federation to protest the
increase in electricity tariff from 45 percent to 65 percent.
The second was in Imo State where the government
suspended over 6,000 workers. We had to go there to
mobilise the workers and our civil society allies and in all,
we had a successful outing. On the part of the increase in
electricity tariff, apart from picketing the NERC office, we
also went to picket all the GENCOS and DISCOS
throughout the federation and we finally submitted a protest
letter to the National Assembly in Abuja, both to the
Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Rep
resentatives. We are pleased to announce that the National
Assembly quickly waded into the matter and the Senate
President and Speaker addressed us and instructed that there
should be a joint committee of both Houses committees on
Power and Labour. The Committee was saddled with the
responsibility of mobilising the stakeholders. Sooner than
later, a public hearing would be conducted on the issue of
this electricity tariff and even a review of the privatisation
process.
On the issue of hike in electricity tariff, are you convinced
with the reasons put forward by the Minister of Power,
Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola?
Since he has
explained the rationale behind the hike, would joint labour
rather see any reason with his opinion?
That is giving the reason after the damage has been done.
What damage are you talking about?
I mean after the increase. The law says you engage
stakeholders in series of meetings and give the reason. The
engagement has been one-sided. The DISCOS and the
GENCOS simply engaged their own allies and the National
Assembly, organised labour, the electricity consumers
community, were all not involved. So, who did they consult
before the increase? Again, there is a court order in place
against NERC and DISCOS.
Whether or not you were duly consulted before the hike, does
organised labour consider the reasons given by the Minister
valid?
We are not against increase in electricity tariff and please
note that. We are saying that before the increase, certain
things must be done. In consonance with the memorandum of
understanding that was signed in 2013 between these
companies and the government, they were given a gestation
period to ensure that all consumers in this country have
metres. That condition has not been made, so, shall we con
tinue in this activity of estimated billing because we want to
give some people time to meet the conditions? We say no!
If you truly want to engage Nigerians, provide the prepaid
meters to consumers. They just levy people whatever they
want and that is what we are against. When the GSM
operators came on board, they didn’t charge before providing
the services. They provided the service first and that is what
we want. Despite that the costs were high, Nigerians paid
for the service.
In essence, what are the demands of joint labour to NERC
and the government of the day, by extension?
This is it: Let us get to the status quo where stakeholders
can sit down and then we can call back our allies who have
gone to court and we can then agree to negotiate.
How would you assess and rate the present administration
of President Muhammadu Buhari?
Well, I keep saying that on the part of fighting corruption,
kudos to him and we encourage him to do more. On the
part of delivery on their campaign promises, we say yes to
that too. During the campaigns, they made mouth-watering
promises and coming on board now, they have seen the dif
ference between campaign promises and the reality on ground.
We implore politicians to always see the reality on ground
before committing themselves. There can be u-turns in the
ideals of government like the idea of going back on the
promise of payment of N5,000 to unemployed Nigerians. We
also hope that they would improve on solid minerals, power,
all to create more jobs.
You once disclosed that the TUC, under your leadership, has
embarked on housing schemes as a welfare package for its
members. To what extent has that gone?
In Abuja, we have two sites under development. As I said,
we have a collaboration with the NLC for another one. We
have also commissioned similar projects in collaboration with
Federal Mortgage Bank in Kaduna, Katsina, Abuja, Kano,
Enugu, Taraba, Niger, and the rest. In Lagos also, we
signed an MoU with our developer to commence projects in
Lekki and Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.
Housing projects are known to be affordable to just the
rich. How would low income earners of the lower cadre
benefit from such?
No high cadre worker would get a room and a parlour or
2-bedroom flat. All the categories are being catered for and
you key into the one you can pay conveniently. The mortgage
bank has an affordability test to ensure that people can pay
so that you don’t spend half of your salaries paying.
When labour unions go to picket erring employers, we hardly
hear what is done next about the whole saga. Why is that
so?
When you picket, it is for you to now give room for
negotiations and that is what we do.
Are you still of the opinion that state governors who can’t
pay the minimum wage should resign?
Yes! The State Creation Committees, as at then, convinced
the government that states can pay at least the salaries of
the work force of the states and the fact is there and it is
incontrovertible. For some governors to now say they cannot
pay is not acceptable by us.
But should they be blamed, going by the reality that some
of these states are not financially buoyant enough?
They should be blamed because it is not about their IGR.
They are lazy. The state governors should resign because you
are not going in accordance with the commitment made while
calling for the creation of that state. When it was rosy, you
never saved for the rainy day and none of them has made
any investment that can sustain the states. They have decided
to use public finds for their private needs and on
campaigns. Where is the excess crude money that was
distributed? These are questions we should ask them. Gov
ernment is a continuum and we must be responsible and
accountable. If you are not prepared for governance, you
give way.
But monthly subventions are not equal and some states are
richer than others?
We are saying that we can survive without oil money
because we have abundant agricultural resources, mineral
resources, solid minerals and tourism potentials. People
should wake up and think rather than waiting for the oil
money to come at the end of the month.
What is the TUC doing to encourage and assist government
for sustainable development, particularly in the area of job
creation?
The war against corruption has started and that would block
all the leakages in fund management so we can invest in
areas that would create jobs. Monies are being recovered
from looters and we need government to tell the people how
much is being recovered so the government could gain the
trust of the people. The idea of the TSA is also welcome
to block the leakages.
What is the level of confidence reposed in the present administration?
We have confidence in the present administration because he
has proven to Nigerians that he has integrity by declaring his
assets and that of the vice president. We doff our hat for
him and encourage them to continue to be upright and
sanitise the system for the benefit of all.
Among your demands from the government of the day,
which would you consider as the priority of joint labour?
We have so many. First is the case of ensuring that
workers salaries are paid promptly. Also, you don’t promote
workers without arrears and benefits. We also need the
government to strengthen the anti-graft agencies in fighting
corruption, particularly the judiciary. We should also look at
the idea of providing adequate power to Nigerians and this
has a value chain on jobs creation.
Source: The Sun.
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