A former Secretary of the National Union of Banks of Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE), Mr David Azuokwu, has condemned the recent invasion of the home of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
Azuokwu said the invasion, which was supposedly to pressure the minister to inaugurate Chief Frank Kokori as the Chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), was a lawless action.
The former labour leader noted that the NLC’s action was alien to labour laws.
He described the invasion of minister’s private residence and threat to his life as criminal.
Azuokwu advised the National Executive Council (NEC), the Central Working Committee (CWC) and all other organs of the NLC to call its President Ayuba Wabba to order.
The ex-NUBIFIE scribe noted that Wabba has no power to query any appointment by the President on the recommendation of the Minister of Labour and Employment.
He said: “The NLC action, led by its President Ayuba Wabba, is unknown to Nigerian and international labour extant laws guiding trade disputes and grievances. The illegal invasion in the guise of picketing the private residence of the minister, Dr Chris Ngige, is highly condemnable and should not be allowed in the country.
“The appointment of any qualified Nigerian into political office at the Federal level is the prerogative of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or by the recommendation of the supervisory minister, in this case, the Minister of Labour and Employment.
“The provision of Section 4(1) (a) of the 1993 NSITF Act, vests the sole power to make recommendation for the appointment of the chairman of the board of NSITF on the President on the Minister of Labour and Employment.”
Azuokwu said the NLC president and members of the union were not recognised by the NSITF Act to nominate or recommend any person for the position of the chairman of the board. “Nigerians wonder where the NLC president got the powers to compel the minister to swear in their preferred candidate as the chairman without presidential approval,” he said.
Citing the law establishing the NSITF, the former NABUFIE scribe explained that Section 4(1)(b)(ii) of the NSITF Act gives the NLC the prerogative to nominate two representatives to the board of NSITF. He said such nominees must go through the recommendation of the minister to the President.
“Their two nominees were duly recommended and approved by the President. What then is the interest of NLC and its President insistence on a particular person? Can Ayuba Wabba tell us the hidden interest that is making him to act outside his jurisdiction? Is there any compromise, which has emboldened the NLC President to throw caution to the wind? Or what extraneous factors are driving him to the illegalities in this matter?” Azuokwu queried
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