Details have emerged about how Senate President and House Speaker were embarrassed out of the May Day rally recently.
Former Edo State Governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole trying to calm the tensed atmosphere as a riot broke out during
the 2017 May Day Rally at the Eagle Square, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida 01/05/2017
There was pandemonium, yesterday, at the Eagle Square, Abuja venue of National May Day celebration, organised by leaders of Nigeria Labour Congress,
NLC, and their Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, counterpart, as
aggrieved workers disrupted proceedings over absence of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo.
The
workers were infuriated that President Buhari had not attended a
Workers’ Day celebration since he took over power in 2015 and had not
deemed it necessary to send the Vice President to represent him.
They
expressed angst that the President kept sending the Minister of Labour
and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, to represent him, an official they
feel could not take responsibility or make categorical statements on
matters affecting workers.
How trouble started
Trouble
started when Mrs. Abiola Bawa, Acting Permanent Secretary in the
Ministry of Labour and Empoyment was called to present the address of
the minister, Dr. Chris Ngige, who sat at the state box with other
dignitaries.
At this point, the workers became restive, insisting the Minister delivered the address himself.
Efforts
made to persuade the workers to allow the Permanent Secretary read the
minister’s address fell on deaf ears as they started chanting: “We no go
gree, we no go gree!”
At this juncture, Senator Ngige stood up from the state box and ran to the podium.
Initially,
there were cheers for him, but as he started to talk, the workers did
not allow him, as they said he had come to make another empty promise as
he did during the last May Day.
In the melee, former President of Nigeria Labour Congress,
NLC, and immediate past governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams
Oshiomhole, also rushed to the podium to calm the situation but the
cheers that greeted his coming died down immediately he wanted to
address the workers as they also resisted him.
As
confusion persisted, attempts by the Police to clear the podium were
also resisted by workers, who started throwing empty water cans to the
podium.
Head of Service, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita,
was immediately whisked away by security operatives through the exit
door of the state box, followed by Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
As soon as the dignitaries were spirited out of the venue, many unions left the venue without the traditional march-past.
However, a few unions that were left observed the march-past without any government official taking salute.
Buhari assures of speedy passage of national minimum wage bill
However, the Federal Government also, yesterday, assured of speedy passage of the new National Minimum Wage bill.
President Muhammadu Buhari said this in a message to mark the 2017 May Day Rally. His words:
“I
am happy to inform you that Government will give expeditious
consideration to the proposal contained in the Technical Committee’s
Report which was submitted to it on April 6, 2017.
Cross section of riotous workers confronting the Police during the 2017 May Day Rally at the Eagle Square, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida
“Government
will take necessary steps to implement the final recommendation of the
Main Government/Labour Committee as it relates to the setting up of new
National Minimum Wage Committee and the needed palliatives.
“This is in order to reduce the discomfort currently being experienced by the Nigerian working class.
“I
want to assure you that government will continue to do all at its
disposal to better the lot of all Nigerians and more importantly to
provide a commensurate welfare for all Nigerian workers, “ he said.
Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki being whisked away by his personal security aides as a riot broke out during
the 2017 May Day Rally at the Eagle Square, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida 01/05/2017
Rally infiltrated by non-members—Ngige
Meanwhile,
Senator Ngige, who stayed behind after other government officials left
the venue, claimed intelligence reports revealed that the rally was
infiltrated by non-union members.
His words: “What
has happened today is that this place has been infiltrated by
non-workers and as you know, there is some factionalization within the
labour federation in Nigeria. So what is playing out here, as we can
understand from intelligence report, is that there is some infiltration
by people who don’t belong to the unions here and so that is what we are
seeing.
“The Federal
Government has been paying salary as at when due. The Federal Government
has bent backwards not to retrench in such a situation that we have
found ourselves but that is the cardinal programme of the
administration, that we will not lay off any worker; we pay them.
“In
fact, sometimes the Federal Government has to borrow to fund the budget
to pay. So, we have been doing that; we are worker-friendly, we have
been doing promotions, we have been doing new recruitment in the civil
service and in the parastatals. So, this government is really friendly,
labour-friendly, worker-friendly.”
He assured
that in the next three months, the minimum wage committee will start
work, while government has concluded plans to pay backlog of arrears of
allowances.
Workers are frustrated — Wabba
Reacting
to the development, President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, said workers were
not happy that neither the President nor the Vice-President was on
ground to address the burning issue of minimum wage.
He said: “Workers
are insisting that either the President or the Vice-President should be
here today (yesterday). Many of our members are facing serious
hardship. It is an expression of the way workers are feeling, the
situation is biting very hard.
“Some
of them could not make it here today. Some of them cannot afford one
square meal per day. So, it is a demonstration of the situation on
ground. The truth is that Nigerians have been pushed to the wall.”
Addressing
workers earlier in his May Day speech, Wabba insisted on upward review
of the national minimum wage, restating NLC and TUC’s demand for N56,000
minimum wage.
He called on the National Assembly to immediately pass the whistle-blower bill into law, saying “we
call on the National Assembly to speedily promulgate the whistle-blower
bill, which the Executive Arm of government informed Nigerians last
December, was before the National Assembly.
“We
call on the National Assembly to expeditiously pass into law the two
Executive Bills that we consider critical to make the fight against
corruption effective, as follows: “The Special Criminal Courts Bill”,
which was submitted to the National Assembly last year; and the “Whistle
Blowers and Witness Protection Bill”, meant to protect whistle blowers
and witnesses from injury, death, economic sabotage, job termination,
etc.”
Corruption hitting us bad — TUC
On
his part, President of TUC, Bobboi Kaigama, lamented that the nation’s
economy was almost prostrate and needs urgent action to bring it to
life.
“Is it not painful that even the NNPC
does not know how many barrels of crude is produced daily? Our economy
is sick, so our priorities must be right. If we miss it now, we may
never get it right again.
“I
personally feel irked each time politicians and employers recommend
downsizing, redundancy and slash in wage as the only way to sustain
their business instead of cutting down on their ostentatious and
flamboyant lifestyle.”
We stand on N96,000 minimum wage — ULC
Meanwhile,
President of United Labour Congress of Nigeria, ULC, Joe Ajaero, in
another rally at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, insisted on
N96,000 minimum wage, arguing that there were no signs that Nigeria was
getting out of recession.
He said: “We want to
reiterate that recession is not mere statistics but something that is
objective and felt concretely in the lives of the ordinary people of
Nigeria. Recession for Nigerian workers and peoples means deeper
poverty, it means hunger, it means denial of access to basic education,
health care and other social services.
“It
means more diseases and sicknesses, it means little nourishment and
much more, it means more death for the working poor. It means increasing
abuse and violations of our rights and privileges in the various
workplaces as the bosses seek ways to beat the stranglehold of
recession.
“This, to us as
workers, is the reality called recession. It is on record that many
state governments are unashamedly owing their workers salaries of up to
one year, while government officials are immersed in unbridled
consumption.”
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Via Vanguard