Aero Contractors: Don’t Provoke Nigerian Workers - NLC

                                                                                                                

 24 March 2013

                                       Press Statement

               

We are surprised that despite huge opportunities provided by the existence of vibrant, well informed, matured and responsible trade unions in the aviation sector, the management of Aero Contractors decided to ignore all available industrial relations mechanisms by dismissing over 655 employees of the company and locked out the entire workforce since 13^th March 2013.

Before the management carried out these ill informed actions, they had approached the National Industrial Court for an injunction that will provide the management an opportunity to take anti workers decisions without consultation with the unions, the National Union of Air Transport Employees and the Air Transport Senior Staff Association of Nigeria.

The basic intention of the management is to ultimately circumscribe workers rights to belong to the unions as well as casualise the entire workforce.

These are totally unacceptable to us and we will do everything possible to defend the rights of the workers.

While we applaud the steps taken so far by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA which grounded the airline since safety cannot be guaranteed with an airline that has caused itself avoidable industrial crisis. All employees of airlines all over the world are key to security and safety of flights.

We call on the management of the airline to recall all those dismissed and reopen their offices immediately.

While we will not hesitate to take appropriate solidarity actions in defence of the workers should the management refuse to reverse its decisions, we urge the workers to continue to take all necessary actions, together with their unions, until the decisions are reversed.

Emma Ugboaja

Acting General Secretary

CHINUA ACHEBE: OUR ICON AND GREAT NIGERIAN PATRIOT - NLC

March 23, 2013

     PRESS STATEMENT

In the death of Chinua Achebe, Nigeria has lost a global literary and cultural icon, a foremost nationalist and father of African Literature. Chinua Achebe was a colossus who bestrode the literary world. He set the tone and direction of African Literature, capturing in the process the total African experience: from pre-colonial and colonial periods through decolonisation and its discontents to national ferments, disillusionment and alienation.

Although better known for his novels, Achebe was an unusual master craftsman who distinguished himself in all the genres of Literature. He was an essayist, poet, playwright and critic who was unrelenting in his criticism against injustice, oppression, corruption and other vices in the society. He captivated the world with his simple narrative as well as inspired generations of African writers who took pride in their cultures.   

Achebe was a principled man and an unignorable  moral force known for his quiet rebuke of bad governance through his  gestures. He did not speak often but whenever he did, it resonated through the nation. He was a critic who offered prescriptions for national rebirth, firmly holding accountable poor leadership as the genesis of Nigeria's problems.   The accident that rendered him physically-challenged for about three decades was avoidable and a sad commentary on the state of our roads. His death at 82 is a blow to the world of the arts and a huge loss to that exclusive club of pioneers of African writers.

The greatest tribute Nigeria may yet pay this icon may not just be the naming of an institution after him or to put his face on our currency note, but to reinvent the education system that produced this unique generation of writers: Achebe, Soyinka, Clark et al.

Adieu our great patriot and icon of the emancipation of the masses.

Comrade Promise Adewusi, mni

Ag. President.

Withdraw State Pardon In National Interest - NLC

                                                                                                         14 March 2013

                                  Press Statement

                                      

We are alarmed by the decision of the National Council of States to pardon Mr.Diepreye Alamieyeseigha who was impeached as Governor of Bayelsa State and eventually convicted by a properly constituted court for stealing public funds; and Mr. Shetima Bulama a former Managing Director of the Bank of the North who was also convicted for misappropriating the bank’s funds.

While we appreciate that the Council of States does have a constitutional responsibility to pardon citizens who have obviously been convicted or punished in the past for offences, it is totally unacceptable that those who committed economic crimes in such magnitude that affected public interest be granted state pardon.

We still wonder what message the National Council of state is sending to Nigerians if at the height of unprecedented corruption in the country those who have been prosecuted and jailed for stealing public money are granted state pardon.

The Congress finds it incongruous the state pardon granted to the former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreiye Alamieyeseigha and Mr Bulama

While like other citizens, they may be entitled to state pardon, Congress believes that the crimes committed are too weighty for state pardon.

It is our view that state pardon remains an act of mercy or reprieve dispassionately exercised or granted by the highest authority in the land for and on behalf of the government and people,  and it should be a last act of mercy sparingly exercised for the good of the nation.  State pardon is recognized across the world not for its own sake but for its potential and capacity for redressing judicial guilt, rewarding penitence, or for initiating reconciliation, and in some instances, for ensuring restoration, but never losing sight of national interest.

We are surprised that eminent members of the National Council of States could not have deeper reflections on the list brought before them by the Presidency before giving their endorsement.

Congress believes that decisions as weighty as state pardon should be well thought-out, transparent and devoid of any ulterior motive and accordingly, call for a reversal of the decision.

We also wish to remind those who canvass the view that the decision is sacrosanct because the National Council of States approved of it that the buck stops at Mr President’s table.  And in any case the role of the Council of State is strictly advisory.

Congress in the light of the foregoing wishes to advise Mr President to make ample use of the machinery of state for wider and more qualitative consultation before taking weighty decisions.

Congress also holds the view that the confidence any government enjoys is to a large extent determined by the quality of advice it takes in the interest of the people

If the anti corruption battle must be won, the Presidency must lead by its actions.

Abdulwahed Omar

President

Comrade Ali Chiroma is a hero of Nigerian workers - NLC

                                                                                                  3rd  March 2013

Press Statement

The former President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Ali Chiroma OON, mni, clocked the enviable age of 80 on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 and is still waxing strong.

Comrade Chiroma is an indefatigable, humble and caring leader, who started his trade union career in 1950, and rose to be President of the Rural Health Workers Union in 1960.  By 1978, he had become Deputy President of the Medical and Health Workers Union after the voluntary merger of the 17 unions in the health sector.  He was also the State Council Chairman of the Borno State Council of Nigeria Labour Congress from 1978 to1981.

From 1981 to 1984, he was the first Deputy National President of the NLC, assuming full Presidency from 1984 to 1988 as the second President after the tenure of Comrade Hassan Sunmonu.

Comrade Chiroma represented workers on the governing board of the International Labour Organisation, ILO from 1984 to 1990.  Earlier in 1983, he attended Course 5 of the prestigious National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru.

Comrade Chiroma was also a member of the Constitutional Conference Commission from 1995 to 1998 and was at various times an ILO Consultant on Workers’ Education in Ghana, Liberia, Sierra-Leone, the Gambia, Uganda and Eritrea.

Comrade Chiroma was President of the Congress in one of the most turbulent periods in Nigeria’s history and confronted the military dictatorships of Generals Mohammadu Buhari and Ibrahim Babangida, for which he suffered harassment, arrests and detentions.

During his tenure as President of the NLC, he developed an organisational alliance with the students movement and was a strong voice in defence of the rights of Nigerian students as well as the right of all Nigerians to affordable education. When students were violently attacked with several of the students murdered by the Nigeria Police at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria the NLC under Comrade Ali Chiroma’s leadership stood strongly by the students.

We will continue to regard this tireless, forthright, committed and very thorough comrade as a living hero of not just the struggles of the Nigerian workers but an indispensable patriot and hero of the Nigerian people who committed himself to the struggle for democracy, as well as to the promotion of trade union and human rights in Nigeria and the African continent.

On behalf of Nigerian workers, we salute this man of courage, exemplary self discipline and committed patriot and wish him many more years of good health.

Abdulwahed Omar            

President