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Oshiomhole offers to resign, to save NLC
• Accuses Obasanjo of personal vendetta
By Bassey Udo,
Adetutu Folasade-Koyi,
Chesa Chesa (Abuja)
and Dele Moses
(Ilorin)
Debate on the
contentious Labour bill got to a head on Wednesday as the President of the
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Adams Oshiomhole, offered to resign if that
would stave off the death knell on the congress and protect workers.
At a public hearing by
the Senate Committee on Labour and Productivity to collate opinion on the bill,
Oshiomhole accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of initiating it to spite him
for mobilising workers against recurrent fuel price hikes.
Pleading with the
executive and the legislature not to make laws with individuals in mind, he
said his tenure would lapse in a few months; however, “I am ever ready to
quit the office, even now, but we must protect the future of Nigeria and
Nigerian workers.
“The crime of
the NLC today is that we refuse to sell out. But we don’t have an alternative. The same Obasanjo told me in 1998
before he became President that the NLC sold out and did not speak up when it
mattered most, which was why the country was in a mess.
“Now, he is
angry because we protested fuel price increases. I advised that a President need not take decisions when he
is angry because that could result in unintended consequences that would do
nobody any good”.
Oshiomhole stressed
that the Senate is too much in a hurry over the bill and appealed that the
public hearing be extended to the 36 states with tripartite consultations among
government, labour unions and employers.
He pleaded that the Senate should stay action on the bill.
He alleged that
federal Attorney General and Justice Minister Akin Olujinmi confirmed to him in
Geneva some time ago that he had no input in the drafting of the bill before it
was presented to the National Assembly.
However, in his own
contribution, Olujinmi gave fillip to the government’s position and
insisted that everything contained in the bill is legal, saying: “Before
I became Minister, I was involved in at least seven Trade Union cases. The
thrust of their brief was that they do not want their money deducted. Yet, the
law, as we have it now, says otherwise. By amending the law, there would be
freedom of association and not compulsion as we have now”.
Support for the NLC
came from unexpected quarters as Senator Uche Chukwumerije insisted that the
bill is both unnecessary and a violation of the spirit of the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 144.
“These laws
cannot and must not be rushed. There is no state of emergency in the country
that would warrant that these laws should be so rushed. Unions cannot exist at
the pleasure of the government. How can the labour minister, who is a custodian
of dialogue and tripartitism, come here to talk on a bill that was not the
product of a tripartite dialogue? We are worried at the way the public hearing
was rushed”, he said.
Earlier, Employment,
Labour and Productivity Minister Hassan Lawal justified the need for the Senate
to act expeditiously on the bill and hinged the government’s position on
seven basic principles: To “promote democracy of labour and further
strengthen it; create choice for workers; comply with ILO requirements;
consolidate the values of accommodation and participation; reform anti-labour
laws to conform with international standards and to amend in consonance with
global labour practice”.
The Kwara State
chapter of the NLC has directed its members to stage a one-day rally today to
protest the bill.
Addressing the congress in Ilorin on Wednesday, state NLC
Chairman Emmanuel Ayeoribe said Obasanjo’s decision to decentralise
Labour further demonstrates his resolve to cripple opposition.
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