Gov Almakura should be held responsible for workers’ death – Wabba

In this interview NLC president, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, speaks to MOSES JOHN on the on-going strike action by workers in Nasarawa state, shooting of two workers in Lafia and the need for independent judicial panel to investigate the circumstances surrounding their death.  
Governor Tanko Almakura of Nasarawa state, unilaterally reduced workers’ salary leading to the on-going strike action in the state. What is your take on the situation in the state?
First, you are aware of the economic challenges that affected all tiers of governments, including organised private sector. Therefore, it is a matter of commitment that lots of states were able to meet their responsibilities.
It is also about their priorities.

States have to look at issues of workers as a priority, because workers create wealth and also provide key services. These are in health, education and many other sectors. Because workers provide these services, therefore, they have to be taken care of.
When you have leaders that think about the people, such issues never became a challenge, rather it would be put on the table.  What happened in Nasarawa is very unfortunate where the governor felt due to the challenges, he needed to cut down workers’ salaries in various percentages depending on grade level.

For us that is illegal because it is against the tenant of collective bargaining. Workers are not slaves, that is why the unions are there to negotiate wages and condition of service on their behalf.
And where an employer will unilaterally reduce a salary that was agreed upon through the process of collective bargaining is something that is not allow in law.

So clearly it is illegal, is out of place and can never be accepted, and that is why the union reacted. Let me also put it in context, when you talk about stakeholders, in industrial relations, it’s not about stakeholders but parties. You talk about parties in a dispute, so when the governor said he called a stakeholder forum, where workers were just in attendance and he raised the issue, such forum do not have the legal status to negotiate workers’ salaries or condition of service.
Invariably, arising from that forum which is all comer’s affairs, because everybody, politicians, traders were there and he made pronouncement that he wanted to reduce workers’ salaries without any agreement, it was a mere pronouncement.

So that is essentially what happened and it should not be condoned in a proper industrial relations system, because in a proper industrial system, the partners are equal: government, employers and employees, must seat together on the table and discuss the issue with fact, so as to reach agreement.
And don’t forget also that agreements can be reviewed but in this case those processes were not followed, rather it was a mere pronouncement because workers are taken as slaves.

We understand that there are challenges, even at that, we can’t set aside laid down rules or procedure. Whatever you put on nothing, will result to nothing, because in law you need to put a thing on something but what they did was to work outside the normal procedure of rules and regulation of discussing and negotiating issues.
Convention 98 of the ILO makes it explicit that the process of collecting bargaining between employer and employee is sacrosanct in having industrial relation process that is free from intimidation and other vices that is against the rules and regulations.

So what led to the shooting of two workers by the police?
You know we have to intervene because after the governor started the reduction, workers in the state then withdraw their services because when an illegal action is taken, workers also have to resort to the last option, which is allowed by law.

They workers were on strike for three weeks before we wrote to him and he gave us a date to meet and see how we can resolve the issues. And don’t forget that we have also intervened in other states like Kogi, Oyo, Ondo and may others.
Challenges will always be there but people are there to provide solution, because if there is the will, certainly there will be the way, to address such issue. But if one party is very rigid and not committed to follow due process, that is where you will have such situation.

The issue is still on.We were in a meeting with him, even when we thought we shouldn’t continue in that meeting because after the unfortunate incident where workers were attacked, in front of government house, while the meeting was on-going, the Commissioner of Police (CP) in charge of the state, said no workers was injured.
We had to adjourn the meeting and left to follow up the matter at the police clinic and saw a worker that was shut in the chest. He is a very high level worker because we were told he is a principal in a school and another who was shut in the head and bullet came out at the other end. So when we came back, we told government our position on the issue and condemned the action of the police in totality.

We also demanded that there should be full investigation and government should take responsibility of the victims at the hospital. Invariably we didn’t go into the full discussion due to the sad incident.
Let me also remind us that two days before the incident, two students were killed by the police while they were protesting the death of their colleague who was knocked down by a vehicle.
And we will do everything to demand justice, including following the matter at the National Human Rights Commission because we also realised that police may not be open and transparent on cases that also affect them, considering the fact that it was an extra judicial killing and also that they used maximum force against the poor workers.

We are also aware that the governor is trying to upturn the actual thing that happened because we got a report that the incident was actually caused by the General Manager of the state FM station, called Nasarawa Broadcasting Service (NBS), Lafia.
Also there was allegation that he was under the influence of cannabis, we have also demanded that his blood sample should be taken. On the details of that, we were told he came on a speed and hit a police officer that is mounted at the gate of Government House and when the police saw that, they went on rampage and start shooting.

The Governor is accusing Labour leaders of being used by politicians, what is your take on that?
Well, the fact is that we have rejected that. He tried to say so while we were there, but we told him no, it is because he unilaterally reduced workers’ salaries and they have to resort to taking action to assert their rights and liberties.
Is demanding for their rights being used by the opposition? That is not true. He cannot say for the past years he had being paying them a certain salary and now unilaterally reduces the salary and they don’t have a right to protest.
The workers by law have the right to protest policies that is against them. Workers are not slaves. It is provided in the law and also the ILO convention 98. So this is a mere excuse and we told the governor that it is not something that is tenable.

Has the Congress contacted the police authority?
We tried to formally report this issue to the police authority and we have also followed up with a formal letter to them demanding that the right thing should be done.
You also know that we alleging that the police used force against the workers, so we are demanding for an investigation outside the police structure because you can’t be judge in your own case.

What action have you taken against the governor?
The only action he took was to advance some resources to those in the hospital but I think he has not own up to say he is fully responsible for what happened. Because one action led to another, therefore the government must take full responsibility of those actions.

Some people are of the opinion that war against corruption cannot see the light of the day because of immunity clause. What is your take on that?
Before the law, everyone is equal. The lead and those who are being led are supposed to be equal.

The fact that they are opportunity to provide leadership does not mean that they more important than any Nigeria.
So we have also canvass that immunity for public officers on criminal issue be removed. For instance, you saw the case of South African president. However, on criminal charges, whether in office or out of office, immunity clause should be removed.
That is the equality that we are talking about, that is the global best practice and in criminal charges, nobody should be immune. So it will be in our best interest to do away with immunity for criminal leaders.