The Nigeria Labour Congress has lambasted Governor Nasir el-Rufai for failing to pay salaries and pensions.
The President of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba, also berated the governor for victimising unionists in the state.
Wabba said this at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Rain School in Akwa Ibom on Monday.
He said, “It is in the face of practising an obscured and jaundiced capitalism that many state governors deliberately refused to pay the salaries of the workers and pensions in their states.
“One very saddening case is that of Kaduna State, where Governor Nasir el-Rufai has embarked on an illusory agenda of ensuring that trade unions become extinct by stopping the payment of salary, pensions and check-off dues.
“Let me have it on record that governors and other political office holders are elected or appointed to serve the people and not kill them through stoppage of the means of their survival and that of their organisations.”
The NLC President also lamented the harsh economic situation of the country, adding that despite the Federal Government’s claim that the recession had ended, Nigerians had yet to feel the impact of the economic recovery.
“Nigerians have been told that the country has got out of recession but we have yet to see the result of the exit of the country from the recession as the social and economic situations of average Nigerians are daily becoming bleaker than before,” he said.
Speaking on the theme, ‘Labour, Politics and National Unity: Expanding the Frontiers of Workers’ Participation’, Wabba said it was important for the government at all levels to increase the minimum wage.
However, Governor el-Rufai’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Samuel Aruwan said, “As far as we are concerned, we are labour friendly. All the government policies as regards labour in the state are geared towards efficiency.
“Only recently, the Kaduna State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers wrote a recommendation letter expressing satisfaction with the policies of the government towards revamping the sector.
“Anything said on labour remuneration or otherwise, is purely political.”
