The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) declared on Tuesday that it would not fold its arms and watch a situation where thousands of workers are sacked with impunity and in clear violation of the clear provisions of the labour laws, in Kaduna State.

Also against the renewed threats by Governor Nasir El-Rufai to set up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry, to seek accountability for the NLC’s actions, the congress clarified that protecting the rights and dignity of workers using all lawful means including strike actions falls under the mandate of the congress.

Against this background, the NLC emphasized that this mandate to “protest and protect the interest of Nigerian workers” as enshrined in Nigeria’s Constitution and Labour Laws will be robustly deployed again by the congress in Kaduna State.

“This time it will be total and in defence and protection of the rights of Nigerian workers and pensioners whom Mr Nasir El-Rufai relentlessly seeks to convert to his foot carpet,” NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba said in a statement issued on Tuesday,” he said.

In a statement titled: “Kaduna workers are not slaves! They have rights,” Comrade Wabba said: “The threat by a supposed civilian government to use a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to address a purely industrial dispute is totally unprecedented in our history as a country. This latest threat is puerile, outrageous, as well as provocative.”

He stated that there is no place in our laws for the intervention of a Judicial Panel of Inquiry into a strictly industrial relations matter, adding, “this novel descent into the lower crevices of authoritarianism, despotism and tyranny exposes the true colours of the Governor of Kaduna State – Mr Nasir El-Rufai as an anti-democrat.

“Instead of threatening, hounding and harming peacefully protesting workers, students and citizens, we advise Governor Nasir El-Rufai to deploy his Judicial Panel of Inquiry to address the mounting insecurity crisis in Kaduna State which is clear fallout of his neo-liberal policies and other acts of cruelty against the people he governs.

“It has been tales of sorrows, tears and blood from Kaduna State especially as occasioned by increasing waves of kidnapping, banditry, general insecurity, a mass sack of workers and killing of students peacefully protesting the hike in school fees at Gidan Waya, Kaduna State. This situation is being encouraged by the neo-liberal policies of the Kaduna State Government,” he said.

The NLC president pointed out that “the statutory notice by the congress effective from June 22, 2021, for a nationwide withdrawal of services and which has been communicated to all employers of labour and the ongoing mobilization of all our structures are all geared towards putting up a firm resistance against the anti-worker policies of the Kaduna State Governor and his ilk.

“While we continue to request the understanding and maximum cooperation of the Nigerian public in this struggle to rid our democracy of tyrants, we wish to posit that the global focus on development is on a human-centred approach to recovery and building resilience from the socio-economic devastations occasioned by the outbreak of COVID-19.

“There is nowhere in the world where governments are hiding under the cover of ‘right-sizing’ to sack workers in huge numbers. Instead, governments are creating jobs and providing material support for citizens to go through this very rough patch in global history.

“We insist that the rights of Kaduna State workers to earn legitimate livelihood must be protected. Kaduna workers are not slaves,” he explained.

Not being satisfied with destroying the livelihoods of workers, Wabba regretted that the state government has graduated to killing students; adding that the actions of the Kaduna State Government demonstrate complete contempt to the present and future labour force in Kaduna State.

He warned: “There is the need to put a stop to the megalomaniac pretensions of a man who claims he was elected to serve the public including workers. El-Rufai’s crude attack on human and trade union rights is totally unacceptable. The crude abuse of power by Mr Nasir El-Rufai must be stopped now or we risk endangering this democracy.”

(Nigerian Tribune)

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