Kano State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Kabiru Inuwa, shares his thoughts with CHUKWUDI AKASIKE on the blocking of 10,800 workers’ salaries by the state government, among other issues
The Kano State Government recently blocked the salaries of 10,800 workers, describing their employment by the immediate past administration as illegal. How will you react to this allegation?
Well, we do not consider the employment of these workers as illegal because if their employment was illegal, they would have been dismissed. But what the state government did was to block their salaries and the workers are still resuming at their various offices. We, as a union, are carrying out our investigation. As we speak, we are meeting some government officials on the matter. On Monday, the State Executive Council of the NLC will meet and we will come out with our position on the matter. For now, we are working tirelessly on it. We are hoping that we will rescue the situation.
The current trend is to approach a problem in a manner that will ensure success in tackling it. We cannot just come out and say we do not agree, but we are investigating and trying to find a better way of solving this problem. But if it means that we have to say we do not agree in the end, we must do that. However, we have to start with advocacy and even ask why the employment of the workers was described as illegal.
The workers must be worried as a result of their plight. Have you been able to reach out to them to assuage their feelings?
We have not reached out to them because the Nigeria Labour Congress is a collection of trade unions. So, every worker is under one trade union or the other. It is the duty of the various trade unions to even report the matter to us but we did not wait for that. None of the affected unions reported the matter to us but we invited them and told them about the workers’ plight.
Can you remember the month the 10,800 workers were employed?
They were employed in February, March and April.
Does that mean they must have earned their first and second salaries?
The majority of them have earned their first salary in May. The majority of them were employed in April. None of them has received more than two or three months’ salary.
Do you think your union has the capacity to successfully defend the workers who may be currently traumatised because of the non-payment of their salary?
We cannot give you a hundred per cent assurance that we are going to save all 10,800 workers. If the state government are saying that they will screen the affected workers, there must be a representation of labour there. All the successive administrations in Kano State had always invited labour whenever a matter involved more than 100 workers. Labour was always invited to witness the process in order to authenticate it or kick against it. So, I am sure the state government will give labour the opportunity to be part of the screening.
Is it normal for workers to be screened after they have been employed?
No; you are aware of what is obtainable in our country. To be candid, once there is a handover from one government to the other that is not from the same political party, some people may be affected by a lot of allegations, rumours and unnecessary hardship based on information that is given to the new administration. So, there were claims that some of the affected workers had not completed their studies but were employed, while some did not have the required qualification. So, if such allegations were made, they (government) should prove it. If they cannot do that, then the workers are legally and lawfully employed.
We are working towards ensuring that these people are returned and we will do our best to make sure that the government, as an employer of labour, sees that the right thing is done. We are convinced that the government is not going to dismiss all the affected workers because if they are going to do that, they will not come out and say that they are going to screen. They would have gone ahead and dismissed them directly. We want to embrace the best labour practice to solve this issue. This is what we are doing and we pray that God will guide us to make sure that we set all the issues rightly.
We learnt that the Kano State NLC would soon meet with Governor Abba Yusuf to discuss the matter. How true is that?
Frankly speaking, I don’t know. I have not received any invitation letter to meet with the governor. I don’t know, maybe it (invitation letter) is extended to some unions, which is possible.
If you have the opportunity of meeting the state governor on the issue, what will you tell him?
I will not disclose that to you, I’m sorry. I have my plans and I will not disclose them here to the public, but there are plans. I have what to tell and present which is basically the truth on what these issues are, and how the service from the workers can be improved on. So, I’m sorry I’ll not disclose that to you.
What will be the next step if the governor insists that he will not pay the workers?
We will never pray for that to happen and it shall never happen by God’s grace because we will ensure that they ask them to commence the screening on time, we will ask them to hasten it because these people have not stopped going to their workplace. What is the good aspect of it? They were not told to stop going to their office. So, we cannot have negative thoughts on this issue. If they were told to stop going to work, then we would know what to do. We are hopeful that immediately after this Eid al-Adha break, even if we are not invited, we will take it upon ourselves to ensure that we beg them (government) to hasten the screening and bring out the results so that they can pay these people their salaries.
If the state government fails to shift ground on the blocking of 10,800 workers’ salaries, will the state NLC embark on any form of protest?
We cannot go on any protest but labour has its way of approaching matters. We have yet to sit and the state chairman of the NLC alone cannot decide for the congress. So, until we meet, strategise and decide what to do.
The government mentioned illegality several times, even in it statements, that the employment of these people remained illegal. Does the blockage of the workers’ salaries also has any link with incompetence or the workers are simply not qualified?
People have different thinking of the word illegality. If you mention illegality, I will presume that you mean that the employment was not supposed to take place. The government has the right to employ, even if it is at the last minute of an administration. Secondly, if you consider it illegal, are there laid down rules for all employees in the state? Were those regulations violated? So, these are the questions we will ask. For instance, if people are employed and they go through procedures for employment, you should tag them as illegal. There’s no way you can do that. So, the reasons mentioned for the blocking of workers’ salary are something that can easily be detected and the problem will be solved. That is why we are hopeful.
Do you have a rough estimate of the total workforce in Kano State currently?
The rough estimate of the workforce in Kano State at the moment is about 185,000 workers.
Do you think the workforce is too much and the government needs to downsize?
No, if you look at every sector in Kano State, we need to increase the workforce. Why? If we mention this number, you’ll think that it is too much, but think about the 44 local government areas in Kano State, all these local governments areas are in need of more primary schools and more secondary schools. We need more tertiary institutions and our population is increasing; it is growing every day. If you look at states with 15 local government areas, they’ll tell you that they have 50,000 employees, but we have 44 local government areas here in Kano State.
If you take a look at the state that is having the least local government areas and you ask about their workforce, times the workforce of that state by 44 local government areas, you’ll realise that we are short-staffed, especially the education and health sectors. We need more teachers and we need more nurses. From time to time, successive administrations come, open hospitals and upgrade some of them, you need doctors, you need nurses and you need workers there. For that reason, the workforce is not too much in Kano State.
That means the level of unemployment in Kano State is high. Can you give us a rough estimate of the level of unemployment in your state?
I cannot because I’m not an economist and I don’t seriously go into that. I have a lot to look at but I’m sorry I don’t know the numbers for now.
Among the 10,800 unpaid workers are teachers. How will the blocking of their salaries by the state government affect schools and education in general in Kano State?
The most affected are health workers in hospitals and teachers in schools. The hospitals are dealing with lives and this may cost us lives. But that will not happen by God’s grace. At the end, we are going to have a win-win situation with the government. We will do the needful, we will plead on behalf of the (civil) service itself, and we will plead on behalf of the workers for them to hasten this screening so that they will know their fate in due course. That is our hope and that is what we are planning to do.
Do you think the move to expunge the affected workers’ names from the payroll has any political undertone?
Well, I cannot speak on whether it has a political undertone or not, but I can rather speak on official matters that we have identified. But we are civil servants; we are only given the reasons, and we accepted the reasons and we want the government to come and prove the reasons they mentioned. That is where we are supposed to stop because we are not meant to involve ourselves in political issues so that we would not make our workers vulnerable. We are not supposed to be seen as being political.
Considering the hardship experienced by workers owing to the removal of subsidy, don’t you think that the government’s decision in handling the workers’ matter came at the wrong time?
In every matter, we are hoping that they will endure the hardship because there’s nothing anyone can do. I’m saying this because at the moment, they have stopped their salaries. If it was mentioned before now that they want to stop their salaries, we could have asked and begged the government to screen them before the salaries were stopped. However, the information came barely 12 hours before the payment of their salaries; that was when we got to know. All that we heard was a rumour but when we learnt that a government official went on air to disclose this, we knew that this would happen to our members. I’m sure it (stoppage of salaries) will be too hard and harsh on them. God will surely bring a remedy to this problem. The government will never be inconsiderate when it concerns the welfare of its citizens.
We also learnt that the government reversed the promotion of teachers who were due for elevation. What is the state NLC position on that?
On that one, it came to us as a rumour. The Nigeria Union of Teachers in the state should have informed us about it. They should have given us the report. After giving us the report, we will look at it and ask why the promotion of teachers was reversed.
You said the trade unions under the NLC like the NUT and others spoke out on the blocking of workers’ salaries. What is your message to these unions?
I have called them and we will hold a meeting on Monday where all the trade unions will be present. At the meeting, we will discuss our findings on the matter and take a decision there.
How will you react to claims that the NLC in Kano State has compromised because your response to the fate of the affected workers was not swift?
How can labour be compromised on such an issue? The government is barely 30 days in office.
Don’t you think that is why a union like the NUT in the state is not sounding tough on the matter, even when many teachers are also affected?
No, I will give the NUT the benefit of doubt; they are working on it and I have spoken with the chairman. He is away for Hajj and I am sure that the other executive members of the union are doing the needful. As I said earlier, all of us will gather on Monday. The NUT chairman is part of the leadership of the NLC. All the executive members of these unions cannot compromise when it comes to the welfare of their members.
We are used to such false claims. No matter what you do, people will want you to sound angry and use abusive words, but we are in a democratic setting and we believe in collective bargaining and frown on trade union gangsterism. Honestly, trade union gangsterism is no longer in practice because it cannot take unions anywhere. Labour unions can get positive result when they embrace the scientific method of doing things. That is what the NLC in Kano State is doing. We better plead before we take any other action that will please the people that are waiting to hear us accuse or insult anybody. We have to change our way of doing things and we believe that we will emerge successful by God’s grace. We will do it in a way that everybody that listens to us will know that we are doing it for the benefit of the state, the workers and the government.
