Sacked CBN Workers Take Case to Soludo
By Nnamdi Duru
Embattled workers laid off from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) between 1996 and 1998 allegedly on the orders of the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, have redoubled their efforts at regaining their jobs. They have appealed to the new CBN Governor, Professor Charles Soludo to review their cases with a view to returning them to their former duty posts.
In a letter to the Governor, the General Secretary of the National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE), Comrade Muhammad Mamman pledged the readiness of the union to assist the bank in the course of reviewing the cases of these Nigerians.
In the letter titled, "The Case of CBN Workers Prematurely Retrenched in 1996 and 1998", Mamman recalled that the union threatened an industrial action targetting the apex bank last year after the Governor then, Chief joseph Sanusi ignored the unions letter on the subject matter.
He added that Sanusi in order to avert the industrial action initiated dialogue with the union and representatives of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the last of such meeting he said was inconclusive on April 26, 2004.
Representatives of CBN at such meeting were allegedely not comming up with reasonable proposals.
"CBN representatives at those meetings have not been very positively forthcoming with any concrete proposals to resolve the problem. instead, they usually, but most unconvincingly, try to do everything possible to defend the injustice done and give lame excuses as to why no meaningful thing should be done to redress the damage done", he alleged.
The union's scribe then appeled to Soludo "to toe a different line from that of the former CBN Governor on the matter", claiming that he is aware that it is a policy of the President Olusegun Obasanjo led government to reinstate workers unjustly retrenched by the governments of Generals Abacha and Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Soludo was implored by the union to review the cases of these afflicted Nigerians while pledging their readiness to assist the apex bank where necessary in resolving this problem.
"Bearing in mind that so much valuable time has already been lost and wasted as a result of deliberate foot-dragging by the immediate past CBN Management, we have thus decided to write you so early in your tenure in the hope that you will take prompt action to remedy this anomaly and thus avoid further casualties.
"We are therefore, appealing to you to treat this matter with the utmost urgency it deserves. We pledge that we are ever willing and ready to assist in any way our services are required, in the speedy and satisfactory resolution of this problem", Mamman stated.
|
