The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Joe Ajaero, on Monday, stated that no governor has the power to ban labour unions, noting that union practice falls under the executive legislative list in the Constitution.
At the expense of their states, he bemoaned the fact that the majority of governors now reside continuously in Abuja.
At a town hall gathering with employees at the NLC Secretariat in Lokoja, the state capital, Ajaero was responding to former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello’s decision to outlaw labour unions in state-owned postsecondary institutions.
He said, “Let me say here, union practice falls under the exclusive legislative list in the Constitution. No governor has the power to ban them; you don’t ban what you don’t have control over.
“Unions are registered nationally by the Registrar of Trade Unions. For administrative convenience, they may choose to have branches in states, so what are you now banning?”
The NLC president claimed that the state administration lacked the authority to ban unions from the exclusive legislative list, expressing amazement that such a thing exists in the state.
However, he bemoaned the fact that the majority of governors leave their states and settle down in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, while the people they were meant to lead are suffering.
In order to alleviate transportation issues, Ajaero continued, the NLC leadership is in Kogi State to deliver and inaugurate ten compressed natural gas buses that have been donated to the state chapter of the congress.
After travelling to Abuja, Ajaero lamented that the governors were never present, pointing out that the leadership had visited five zones.
Ajaero emphasised that workers were experiencing the brunt of the difficult economic reality due to the high cost of living, but he also added that the government’s consideration of raising telephone tariffs was going too far.
Although he claimed that only one of the five zones visited had the governor present, he said the leadership would bring up the issues and demands raised by the workers with the governor.
Ajaero said, “However, there is a problem we are having in trends because most governors are now living permanently in Abuja. We have moved to about five zones; Kogi is about the fifth zone. We have met governors in only one state. Each time you go there, they are in Abuja, and this is affecting governance.
“I think we should be able to manage the centre and the units so people will have the feeling of democracy, the dividend of democracy, so that people can talk to their leaders.
“So, if we capture all these things, the information you are going to give us will be conditional if the governor is around. If he’s around, we will convey your information to him. If he’s not around, whoever he’s going to send, we pass it to him.”
He claimed that Kogi State was strategically important to the Congress because it had union representatives in the positions of governor and deputy. He also mentioned that the deputy was a representative of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, or NUT, and that one of his officials in Niger State was Governor Usman Ododo.
He said, “So, we want to make this a town hall meeting to listen to you to know what has been done and what has not been done properly, so we take it to them.
“To us, it is like homecoming. We want to come and interact with them to find out whether they are doing those things we are criticising others for.”
The workers previously informed the NLC President that the state government had prohibited unions at Kogi State Polytechnics, Kogi State University, and the State Colleges of Education, Technology, and Nursing for more than a decade.
Among other demands, workers requested the NLC to step in and address the lack of housing for workers, the annual salary rise, and the teacher shortfall in elementary and junior secondary schools.
