Saturday, 19 March 2016

Group accuses CBN, CPC of ignoring plight of bank consumers

Posted By: Our Reporteron: March 20, 2016In: BusinessNo Comments

The chief regulator of commercial banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] and the Consumer Protection Council [CPC] of Nigeria have been blamed for the various unauthorised deductions and fees levied bank consumers.

These unjustifiable and unwarranted deductions from consumer accounts and fees that commercial bank consumers are forced to pay, according to speakers at a symposium organised by the Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria [BJAN] to commemorate the World Consumer Rights Day [WCRD] is because the CBN and CPC have failed in their responsibility of protecting consumers.

At the one day event held at GRA, Ikeja, on March, 15th, the Keynote Speaker, Public Relations Guru, Mr. Adetokunbo Modupe, Chairman TPT International, said that “banks for reasons such as greed, moral and professional bankruptcy have often chosen to be the proverbial dogs eating the meat kept in their care.”

This action, said the PR consultant, has had adverse implications for CBN’s programme of financial inclusion as well as the volume of money outside the banking system and the effectiveness of monetary policy implementation.

Accusing the CBN of failing in its responsibility of protecting the banking public and the CPC of not showing interest in the plight of bank customers, Adetokunbo wondered if the “EFCC should intervene in the obvious financial infraction or should we go to church like we usually do to pray to God to save us from the evils of Nigerian banks.”

Speaking further, he said that there have been many complaints by bank customers of unauthorised and illegal charges, “such fleecing of the customers has become the rule than the exception.

“The excesses come under different descriptions such as management fees, processing fees, interest charges, commission on turnover, card maintenance fees, account maintenance fees, deposit, withdrawal and telephone alert fees, ATM fees. Even the recently introduced stamp duty charge has become another source through which they commenced overcharging their customers. In one transaction, some banks send more than two text message alerts and charge for each,” lamented the keynote speaker.

He thundered that “it is a regime of cheating that must be stopped” while he recalled that last year alone, “CBN investigated over 6,000 complaints from bank customers and compelled banks to refund the sum of over N6.2billion to affected customers.”

Sola Salako, President, Consumer Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria, regretted that the Nigeria bank system is not programmed to look out for consumers or to protect them despite the fact that we have a regulator.

Reacting to the new proposed CBN charges on bank consumers, “It shows that CBN is insensitive to the plight of consumers. Despite mounting consumer complaints on charges CBN is proposing more charges to be levied on the banking populace.

“Everywhere in the world, when you automate a system, it becomes cheaper but not so in the Nigeria banking industry,” added the CAFON president.

Speaking on the theme of the symposium, ‘Banking in Nigeria: Developments and Customer Challenges’, Mr. Goddie Ofose, BJAN national chairman, said it was chosen “as a result of the imbalance and accusation of consumer rights abuse against the players in the financial sector.”

The BJAN national chairman urged consumers to begin to make leaders accountable, especially the regulatory agencies whom he pointed out are regulating without any one regulating them.

“All of us should begin to work as campaigners against consumer right abuse,” advised Mr. Ofose while also stressing that “we should assist government by educating consumers on their rights and consumers too should always summon the courage to make complaints where and when necessary.”

Furthermore, he called on regulatory agencies to work together “for instance, through collaboration between CPC and CBN or NAFDAC and CPC a lot could be achieved to save Nigerian consumers.”

However, Mr. Uju. M. Ogubunka, the President, Bank Customers Association of Nigeria [BCAN], said the blame of the various abuses that the banking public are getting from banks should be passed to everyone and not just the regulatory agencies.

“The problem is not about banks but consumers. How many of us know our rights? Many consumers do not know there is even a guide to bank charges. We are to blamed for being ignorant.”

Cautioning people not to pass all bank customers woes on CBN and to refrain from making uninformed remarks on the issue he said “Banks may not have met all our needs but they are doing a lot. If other sectors in Nigeria can do half as what the banks are doing then we will have a better society.”

He urged consumers to seek for more knowledge “as self protection is the greatest protection one can give to himself.”

Noting the five new charges that the CBN is proposing to introduce, the president, BCAN, called on all consumers to familiarise themselves with the charges now and speak out concerning the charges.

“Every bank consumer has the opportunity to speak and voice their resentments about the charges before they are implemented. CBN made it open for consumers to react to them before a final decision is taken on them. It is our responsibility to advice CBN when it is not getting it right and encourage when is doing a great job.”

Meanwhile, CBN is proposing the introduction of five new charges on bank customers. These charges include a N50 charge on every cheque leaflet obtained and used at deposit money bank’s counters, A N100 per month maintenance charge on every debit [ATM] card. This is separate from the existing N65 charge after the 3rd withdrawal within the same month. If the card is not used in a month, N50 will be deducted.

The regulatory body is also proposing a N4,200 per month charge on foreign currency denominated cards as maintenance fee. It is proposing a charge of a N100 on form A, which is used by students to apply for forex on school fees, medical bills and travel allowances.

Also form M, which is predominantly used by manufacturers to import goods not on CBN prohibition list, is proposed to henceforth cost N1,000 in addition to maintenance fee on e-form platform in line with CBN directive.

Transport Ministry’s Ambitious Revenue Target for Maritime Agencies

March 20, 2016

Lagos Ports , Apapa

With the revenue target of N500 billion each for the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), including one N1trillion from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the maritime industry appears to be the hope for the government with the dwindling fortunes of oil. But industry stakeholders argue that the target would be far from being achieved considering the economic policies and crises that have affected the sector. Francis Ugwoke writes

The past few months of the former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, as the Transportation minister speak volumes of daring efforts to get the transport sector, particularly the maritime sector, to take its right of place in the national economy. Amaechi, on assuming office last year, said the sector has not contributed enough to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He described the 1.41 per cent aggregate contribution as unacceptable. According to him, “Countries like South Korea and Singapore have built their economies around a vibrant transportation sector. Although Nigeria is blessed with multiple modes of transportation that is the envy of many, these potential have largely remained untapped. The President Muhammadu Buhari administration is determined to fully exploit the potential in the transportation sector.

“As a first step, the government will pursue the enactment of legislation that will open up the sector to new investments that will lead to economic prosperity. Among the bills that is ready for legislative action is the National Transport Commission Bill – an act to provide for the establishment of a National Transport Commission as an independent multi-modal economic regulator and other related matters. He said the bill among others have been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in March 2014.”

Revenue Targets and Industry Health

In an apparent effort at improving the sector’s contribution, Amaechi appears to have taken the bull by the horn. He is taking on all fronts at the same time. Few weeks ago, he set N1trillion revenue targets for the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration Safety Agency (NIMSASA). That is N500 billion each for the two agencies this year. Incidentally, the annual budget of each of the two organisations is not known to have been up to N160billion in the past. In 2014, NPA budgeted N144.5billion while NIMASA budgeted N86billion.

The minister said “the only way we would not change officers in the sector is if we achieve the N500billion, we cannot achieve it without a proper reform,‎ Nigerian maritime sector must bring part of the money we would use in replenishing the nation, if they cannot meet the target I will tell Mr. President to allow me hire new persons who can help me achieve it. If you think the corruption in the maritime and transport sector has stopped with the emergence of the new government, the answer is No!‎ We all need to sit and think of what to do to allow those who can make legitimate money to come into the system”.

He added: “Statistics has shown that over 80 per cent of global oil trade is transported by ships, while in the case of Nigeria, it is 100 per cent. The shipping sub-sector of the maritime industry is estimated to be worth over $3 billion annually. It is therefore expedient to stress that transport is demand-driven and government in its commitment to shipping, will consider growth and development of the industry”.

The minister has also indicated readiness to audit the port reform exercise, including the merger of associations of major stakeholders and professionals in the industry. He believes this will have positive impact on improving on the fortunes of the industry. But as sincere as the minister has demonstrated, industry experts quickly point out that how much the sector contributes to the national economy will depend largely on the ship and cargo traffic at the ports.

In other words, how much the government realises from the maritime sector would depend on its economic policies that will either encourage international trade that will increase traffic in the ports or reduce it. For instance, the list of 41 products, which will not benefit from the foreign exchange official allocation will play a part on how much traffic to expect in the ports. Definitely, it will reduce ship and cargo traffic and to a large extent revenue generation. Already, there has been lamentation by customs brokers that many importers have not been in business since the forex crisis started with One US Dollar exchanging for N400 and now down to about N315.

Secondly, the number of oil marketers involved in importation of refined products has come down because of the decision of the federal government to stop payment of oil subsidy. This will affect the traffic and revenue at the ports. As the minister may be aware, many have already lost their jobs as a result of the downturn in the maritime industry. For instance, some terminal operators have had to lament that the poor economic situation has hit them to the extent of opting for mass sack.

The RORO port under concession with Grimaldi Group was among those that have suffered the economic policies of the government with reduced traffic on ships bringing in vehicles. Importers of vehicles, customs brokers and freight forwarders have all been hit by the government policy. Many have reduced their workforce by more than half, it was gathered.

It would be recalled that one of the biggest terminal operators, APM Terminals Apapa, had last year November also said it was planning to reduce its workforce as a result of the falling cargo traffic. The General Manager, Communication & Sustainability of the company, Mr. Austine Fischer, had in a statement explained that fall in cargo traffic has forced the company to reduce staff. APMT was not alone as many other terminal operators were believed to have reduced their staff strength.

Early this year, the APMT Customs Command confirmed the poor state of traffic at the ports with just N63.18 billion for the whole of last year. The revenue according to the Customs Public Relations Officer in the Command, Mr. Steve Okonmah, fell by 32 per cent compared to the figure in the previous year which was N91.45billion.PTML which is a Roll On Roll Off (RORO) vehicle port recorded 172,174 vehicles in 2013, 129,361 vehicles in 2014 and 66,823 vehicles last year. Although some customs commands in Lagos, have recorded impressive revenue for the months of January as records showed, freight forwarders said this was because some importers who have had difficulty clearing their goods last year had them cleared early in the year. For instance, the Apapa Customs Command recorded N24billion in January, but the figure fell in February with N19.7billion. In effect, to observers, the revenue target set by the minister will be a big task for the parastatals considering the state of the economy generally.

Port Concession Audit

In an apparent move to ensure that more revenue is generated from the maritime industry, Amaechi had also announced government’s readiness to carry out a performance audit on ports concession. After directing the NPA to ensure that all payments are made in United States dollar, the Transport minister disclosed that government had engaged auditors to examine the gains of port reform. He said the port reform exercise had not benefitted the government commercially.

As a follow-up to the directive of the minister, the Managing Director of the NPA, Mallam Habib Abdullahi, said in Lagos recently that the concession agreement with the terminal operators would be reviewed. According to him, “We are calling for a review of the concession, so that we can look at the agreement and move forward. It has always been undergoing scrutiny”.

Cabotage Shipping

One area that may be of serious concern to the Transport minister is the Cabotage Shipping policy which has failed to achieve its objective. Cabotage policy which is under the administration of NIMASA was introduced in 2003 to develop indigenous shipping. Under the policy, only indigenous shipping companies are supposed to be involved in the carriage of goods within the nation’s territorial waters except where Nigerians do not have such capacity. But the trend has been the domination of the nation’s territorial waters by foreign vessels violating the policy provisions. Many of these vessels include some which obtained waivers fraudulently and those without waivers.

NIMASA has not been able to address this problem, leaving indigenous shipping companies to their fate. The other issue is the refusal of the NNPC and oil majors to consider many of the indigenous shipping companies in contract of affreightment of cargo within the territorial waters. They prefer foreign firms instead, a situation that has impacted negatively on the national economy. Successive administrations have failed to address this issue, and with the change agenda of the government, one expects that the minister should be able to come to the rescue of the local ship-owners. One also recalls the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) which had reached $200million for disbursement to local operators.

Reports have it that the fund has since been depleted with less than a quarter of it remaining. If the fund had been well-utilised, it would have led to acquisition of more vessels and employment generation. To industry stakeholders, the way forward on CVFF is for the Transportation minister to determine.

Why Aliko Dangote is a Strategic Economic Pillar

March 20, 2016

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Crusoe Osagie examines a recent declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari that Dangote is one of the most strategic investors in Nigeria and profiles some of the investments which may have led the president to draw this conclusion
Recently, President Muhammadu Buhari described Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group, as one of the most strategic investors in Nigeria and Africa.

Knowing that Buhari is hardly a leader that wastes words, it is clear that the president carefully considered all Dangote’s investments in the country and their relevance to the survival of the economy before arriving at that conclusion.
The president last week called on other investors and countries in Africa to consider the strategic nature of investments made by Dangote Group and General Electric (GE), among others, asking them to take a cue.
Buhari made the statement when he opened proceedings last Monday at the sixth African Petroleum Congress and Exhibition (CAPE VI) held in Abuja by the African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA).
The President, who was represented at the event by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), identified some of the companies adding the most value to the Nigerian economy through their ingenious investment as GE, Dangote Group, Ladol Shipyard and Samsung.
According to the president, African countries should develop ingenious ways of promoting value addition and investments through sustainable policies in local content.
He added: “A common approach to local content will ensure that the whole of Africa benefits from economies of scale associated with our vast resources.”
Buhari noted that ongoing mega projects like the General Electric service centre for manufacturing rotating equipment in Calabar; the Ladol industrial free zone in Lagos – a wholly indigenous, privately developed and hosting the largest shipyard in West Africa; the 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) Dangote Refinery in Lagos; and the Samsung FPSO integration yard in Lagos, are some of the most strategic investment to an African economy.
He stressed that the continent must recognise that the development of domestic refining capacity in the oil and gas sector would remain critical to sustainable economic growth.
Petroleum Refining Effort
Dangote Petrochemicals’ 650,000 barrels per day (BPD) capacity petroleum refinery which will come on stream by 2018 will deal a major blow to the status quo of import dependence.
Senior manager, civil and structural, Dangote Petrochemicals Ltd, a subsidiary of Dangote Group, Madhav Kelkar, recently noted that when the refinery comes on stream, it would boost the country’s refining capacity and enhance industrialisation.
He said construction work on the projects was expected to be completed by 2017 while refining operation would commence by 2018, adding that the project would create job opportunities for Nigerians.
“The 650,000 barrels per day capacity refinery will meet the 2018 deadline,” he said. “As you can see, piling and land reclamation are going on. Sand filling is the most critical part of the project and a Belgium-based dredging company called Jande Nul is in charge of dredging and soil investigation.
“Assembly and coupling of equipment will take only a couple of months. I think we are making progress and I’m happy with what we have done so far.
“At the end of the day, every Nigerian will be very proud that we have the longest single train refinery in the world. That’s the vision of Dangote.’’ Kelkar said when the project is completed, Nigeria would be self sufficient in refining of crude oil.
He said more than 2,000 Nigerians would be employed when the refinery commence operations.
He said the petrochemical plant would produce 750,000 metric tonnes of polypropylene per annum while the fertiliser plant would produce 2.8 metric tonnes of Urea and Ammonia.
Cement Independence
As for cement, Dangote’s determination essentially drove other operators in the country to embrace the idea of genuinely pursuing the cement self-sufficiency vision of the federal government, which has since been achieved.
Dangote Cement Plc is a subsidiary of Dangote Industries Limited and is the largest company traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. In 2013, the company produced and sold 13.3 million metric tonnes of cement, with revenues of US$2.4 billion. As of 2014, Dangote Cement had a market capitalisation of $20 billion. In 2012, Forbes Africa named Dangote Cement as one of the top five listed companies in West Africa.
The company is by far Nigeria’s largest cement producer with three plants in Nigeria and 13 other African countries. The company is a fully integrated quarry-to-depot producer with production capacity of 19.25 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) in Nigeria. It has further built over 19mmtpa of production, grinding and import capacity across Africa, which became operational by the end of 2015.
The Dangote Cement plant in Obajana, Kogi State, is the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa with 10.25mmtpa capacity across three lines and a further 3mmtpa capacity currently being built. In 2012, the firm opened a $1 billion cement plant in Ibese, Ogun. The facility is capable of producing 6 million metric tonnes of cement per year, raising the company’s total production by 40 per cent at the time.
The plant was installed by the Chinese construction and engineering firm Sinoma, and represents one of the largest non-oil investments in Nigeria. The company’s plant in Gboko, Benue has 3mmtpa capacity with an upgrade to 4mmtpa planned in 2013. A plant in Senegal also opened in 2015.
Also, Dangote has commenced arrangement to set up a 3 million mmtpa cement plant in Okpella, Edo State and another 6million mmtpa in Itori, Ogun State, both to raise the Nigerian cement output of Dangote to 29.25 mmtpa.
Rice Intervention
Between 2005 and 2015, Nigeria’s monthly import bill went up from N148 billion to N917 billion. Paradoxically, most of the items Nigerians import are needless items and things that can be produced locally. The crash of the crude oil price which, has remained the main foreign exchange earner for the nation, has now laid bare the helplessness of Nigeria as a monolithic import dependent economy.
With crude oil not able to sustain the economy anymore, the attention expectedly is shifting to agriculture, which decades ago was the propeller of the then buoyant economy. This is one of the reasons Dangote made a foray into productive agriculture. Recently, he launched his Dangote Rice Outgrowers Scheme in Hadejia, Kafin-Hausa local government area of Jigawa State.
Starting with 20,000 hectares of rice cultivation under scheme known as outgrowers, to be expanded to cover 800, 000 hectares over the next three years, Dangote said time is now to turn to agriculture to save the nation’s economy.
The business mogul commenced the scheme with the distribution of treated rice seedling for planting to some 5000 farmers expected to participate in the scheme.
He explained: “We are committed to the development of Outgrower scheme by providing local, value added products and services that meet the ‘basic needs’ of the populace. To this end, the Dangote Rice Farm Ltd, will run an initial pilot in Hago-Fadama, Kafin Hausa and Auyo areas which would see Dangote Rice developing small hold farmers by providing quality inputs (certified seeds, fertilizers, agro-chemicals and petrol), improved agricultural practices and technology to increase yield and produce quality rice paddy which would also be bought back from them by Dangote Rice Limited. The Outgrower programme in Jigawa state is expected to create more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs to the host communities.”
Over the period, aside the out growers aspect of the investment, he explained, Dangote Rice is planning to plant approximately 150,000ha of long grain white rice and produce near one million tons of high quality par boiled white rice for sale into the Nigerian market.
“Our internal policy within Dangote Rice Ltd is to procure 30 per cent of our Rice production from local farmers who will be developed into outgrower groups. These Outgrowers will be simultaneously developed alongside our commercial farming operations.”
Why Rice?
Dangote said: “Before the discovery of oil, our economic was built around potentials from our palm oil, groundnut, cotton, and rubber plantations. Now the price of oil has plummeted from a peak of $116 per barrel in June 2014 to as low as $29 per barrel in January 2016, this means there is huge loss of revenue to the government.” He said Nigerian agricultural commodities and food imports bills has averaged over N1 trillion in the past two years in 2013 and 2014, with foods like sugar, wheat, rice, fish accounting for 93 per cent of the total cost of imports, a situation he described as unacceptable for anyone who loves the country.
He justified his investment in rice cultivation pointing out the situation the country had found itself needs a reversal. According to him, Nigeria spends nearly $1.8billion per annum importing approximately 3.2 million MT of rice to feed its population. These are dollars that could be used on more impactful social development interventions if they were not needed for food imports. Currently the average yield of rice in the country is between 1.8 to 2.5 MT/ha, depending on the region and the crop (wet or dry) and with or without irrigation 1.8 MT/ha, which is significantly lower than the best practice yields in Africa of 9.2 MT/ha generated in Egypt. Locally produced rice is more expensive than imported rice due to the high cost of production relative to the low yields in the country because of poor agronomic practices. In addition the Government of Nigeria has implemented policy incentives that encourage investment in domestic rice production and milling.
He regretted that the huge amounts were being expended on food items that the country has potential to produce locally with attendant losses of employment generation and wealth creation opportunities. “Yet the allocation of foreign exchange to import these items depleted the foreign reserves continually.”
Dangote disclosed that the Dangote Rice Outgrowers Scheme has been designed as a one stop solution for the rice value chain.
In his remark during the rice seedling distribution, Minister of state for Agriculture, Senator Heneiken Lokpobiri, lauded the initiative of Dangote, saying his intervention in the government efforts at providing food security for the citizenry, creating jobs and reducing dependency on food importation are being boosted.
According to him, a whooping sum of $20 billion is spent on importation of food items that could be produced locally, a situation he said Dangote Rice investments would help ameliorate.
Ending Tomato Paste Importation
The much awaited Dangote tomato paste factory in Kano State, has commenced operations in an attempt to curb the importation of tomato pastes into the Nigerian market, through which $1.5 billion is frittered annually.
The $20 million facility, which is the size of 10 football pitches set within 17,000 hectares of irrigated fields, will directly employ 120 people. It is also expected to produce about 430,000 tons of tomato pastes annually, which is a significant ingredient in most local Nigerian dishes such as Jollof rice, stew and many soups.
This plant will help save tons of tomatoes from rotting away in the Nigerian market. According to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Nigeria produces about 1.5 million tons of tomatoes a year, but over 900,000 tons is lost to rot. This is obviously a huge sigh of relief for farmers in Northern Nigeria where this crop is grown the most. However, the Dangote Group, owned by Africa’s richest man, has said that the company will buy tomatoes from farmers who grow this crop in large quantities. This is because the factory requires a huge supply of tomatoes to be functional.

We must add value to our economy –NLC President

Posted By: Olufemi Adeosunon: March 20, 2016In: Politics, Sunday MirrorNo Comments

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This month, Nigeria Labour Congress President, Comrade Ayaba Wabba is one year in office. In an interview with select newspapers in Abuja, he bares his mind on various national issues, including the efforts being made by the union to protect the interest of Nigerian workers against antilabour practices both in the private and the public sectors Olufemi Adeosun was there
The election that brought you to power was contested by other candidates within the NLC. It is now one year that you assume office, has the dust raised by the election settled down eventually?
Several efforts have been made by the veterans to ensure that everybody is on the same page concerning the outcome of the election. What happened during the election was not knew and we have internal mechanisms to address whatever issue that arise within our folds and we have been employing that. Basically, we have done that in good faith, our veterans have worked assiduously. We have addressed all issues. What it remains is to present the outcome of the reconciliatory moves to the National Executive Council. However, let me restate that the position is that, the election that brought me to the office cannot be controverted. That is the position of the elders and it is documented. I am committed to that. While that is ongoing, we cannot sit down and fold our arms. Problems are meant to be solved. If we had been docile, the issue of lack of payment of salaries in some states would have been a monumental issue. The first thing I did on assumption of office was to go give an order to the state councils to commence indefinite strikes in the states where workers salaries were not paid. And they complied. May I also emphasize that part of the mandates of the NLC is to protect, defend and promote the right and wellbeing of the Nigerian workers. And to also ensure a Nigerian state that is transparent, where policies and programmes of government are tailored towards wellbeing of Nigerians. This is our broad mandate and we cannot allow internal bickering to dissuade us from doing that. I am happy that Nigerian workers know there leaders. When we call them, they respond. When others call, you see nobody. They know we represent their interest and they know we have all that it takes to pilot the affairs of the union and that is why we are not finding things difficult. You can be in the comfort of your home and claim to be a leader, but you can only lead members of your family, not the people you need their mandate to exercise power.
One year in office, how has been your experiences, challenges and holding power?
Don’’t forget that I had led one of the biggest unions in the country before becoming NLC President. By records, Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, is the biggest affiliation to the NLC and for the 10 years that I presided over the affairs of the union, it prospered from what level to another. Before I left, my union was one of the most organised unions in the country. In terms of affiliation, we paid N527million within four years and that has impacted on the union. When I came in, the number of our delegates is 9, from there 75 and to above 100. During the last congress, we had over 500 delegates. We achieve this feat through diligent organisation. I was also the Treasurer of NLC for eight years. Although, it may be a different office, I believe the issues are the same. Issues pertaining to workers are the same, the challenges are the same. The only difference is that we came at a critical stage in the nation’’s history, when economy is seriously in a bad shape. This places extra responsibility on us. Before now, the monthly payment of workers salary was not an issue. Now, you have to struggle. There are also competing interest to be met, especially by politicians who want to recoup what they had invested. Private and public employees are coming up with new devices to undermine the interest of workers and that entails more work for the labour movement in Nigeria. We need to intensify our engagement and come up with new strategies. For instance, the idea behind our bi-monthly policy discourse was conceived to enable us tackle specific issues and proffer alternative winning methods. We have since had two of such. The first one was on high cost good governance and the second one, which took place in Lagos, was on the issue of electricity tariff and subsidy. We are going to look at the issues of economy and insecurity next. We have come up with this initiative so that our members can be well informed and so that we can be ahead of the issues to make strong defence for the Nigerian workers.
Your agitation in Imo State led to the recall of over 3,000 workers whose employments were unlawfully terminated. Are you planning to have such intervention in other states where workers are being treated with disdain in breach of relevant labour laws?
We did not only intervene in Imo, we did in other states where we had challenges. As I’’m talking now, workers in Ogun State are on industrial action. We are looking at how to engage the process. You are aware of that of Osun State. Whereas the employers have different tendencies, there are some that go into the extreme to ensure that the welfare of workers is not even given any attention. Those are the places we would insist our laws must be respected. We would also clampdown on states where workers are disengaged without due process, like that of Imo State. Even the bailout that was given to states was a product intervention which came up as a result of agitations we made that workers should not be made to suffer the challenges in the economy. In most states, it was judiciously utilized. In the few states where it has not been well utilized, we have also risen up to the challenge, including requesting that investigations should be conducted. You are aware that recently, the antigraft agency arrested some key officials in Imo State. All employers of labour now realise we will not take the issue of undermining the interest of workers lightly. We are also beaming our searchlight on the private sector. Recall we were in Lagos during the World Industrialisation Day and World Decent Work Day where we visited some factories and liberated a lot of workers. We visited Chinese and Indian companies that have also enslaved Nigerian workers. All of these are taking place concurrently so that workers can have a new lease of life.
Would the intervention include making demands for the review of the N18,000 minimum wage?
We have never made any pretense about that. The law envisages a five year circle within which the minimum wage is due for a review. Not only that, the inflationary trend in the country makes the review more compelling. I will not disclose any figure now until we tidy up things with the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria(TUC). They have submitted their own proposal, we have submitted our and one committee is working on it. Once work is done on it, we will make it public.
Do you think the present administration would be favourably disposed to wage increase in the face of the present economic challenges?
The fact is that until you make a demand, nobody gives you your right on the platter of gold. All through history, wages of workers have always been gotten through a process of collective bargaining. Which means, a worker must make a valid demand, putting the facts to justify his demand on the table. And a process of negotiation takes place through which negotiating parties strike a balance. That is why convention 87 and 98 provide the right of a trade union to represent the interest of workers through the process of collective bargaining. The first increment we got in 1999, was not given to us by Obasanjo on a platter of gold. Demands were made, issues x-rayed and we then negotiated the figure we got, same in 2000. What we are doing is not a new thing. We are aware of the challenge of the economy. However, we have instances where the best way to get the economy moving is to ensure there is production and that people have purchasing power. If you produce and no one to buy, the economy will still be in a standstill.
Apart from dwindling pump price and fall in the value of the Naira, another disease that has eaten deep into the Nigeria’’s fabric is the endemic corruption in virtually all our national lives. Do you see this administration succeeding in confronting the menace?
The fact is that Nigeria has never been a poor country. In fact, the nation is one of the most endowed countries in the world in terms of natural resources. It is also blessed in terms of what it takes to drive development. We ought not to be where we are today, if the right thing has been done. Basically, our fundamental problem is corruption. Some days ago, one of the managing directors in the construction sector told me that in the past years, any road contract awarded in Nigeria, 40 per cent of the contract sum was being shared by those managing the process. You can draw from that scenario that our basic problem is lack of good governance brought about by high level corruption. It has assumed alarming proportion that all you hear this day is billions and trillions. As part of the efforts to fight the menace, the first thing we did when we came in was to orgainse a national rally for good governance and anti-corruption. The rally took place across the country to sensitize Nigerians. From $2.1m arms deal to N3.3trillion that has not been remitted to the nation’’s money, the nation bleeds under the weight of blind looting. Imagine what this huge amount would have been able to do if deployed to infrastructure development. Also look at the almighty power scam where over $40bn was said to have been committed to rejuvenate the power sector, yet we have continued to live in darkness. The investigation into it has not been completed till date. This justifies our call for the introduction of capital punishment for the looters of our treasury. If stringent punishment is not put in place to serve as a deterrent, Nigeria may not survive it.

Groups allege plot to smear Buratai in order to sabotage war against Boko Haram

By Sylvester Ugwuanyi on March 19, 2016

Two pro-democracy Non-governmental organizations – The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, and the Association of African Writers on Human and Peoples Rights, AFRIRIGHTS have alerted Nigerians to a well-coordinated plot by some forces opposed to the counter terrorism war in the North-East to plant sponsored but false newspaper stories aimed at damaging the character of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai.
The rights groups claimed that, “ a mole within and without the military establishment have concluded plans to sponsor soft tissues of lies alleging violations of the assets declaration made by the Army Chief with specific reference to an offshore housing assets in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.”
A press statement signed jointly by Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko for HURIWA and Esther Orok for AFRIRIGHTS asserts that the enviable accomplishments of Buratai are some of the reasons the faceless detractors want to drag his name into the mud.

They warned that any campaign of calumny against the COAS will not just be a personal attack on him as a person, or the Nigerian Army, but is an insult and assault on the collective sensibilities of Nigerians, stressing that it is tantamount to distracting him and the Army he leads from clearing the remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists.
According to the statement, “Just recently, some faceless individuals under the aegis of concerned citizens tried to drag the good name and reputation of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai into the fray of the ignoble arms procurement deal. That effort fell flat on the face of the perpetrators. Typically, hell bent in destroying the General, they came up with another condemnable smear campaign. They again embark on another round of smear campaign, alleging that he has investments outside the country.
“Being concerned about the conduct of public officers and the need for propriety, our organization took it upon itself to investigate this allegation just like several others, and found out that they are untrue. For the avoidance of doubt the said investment was legitimately cumulated over long period of time and was declared to the Code of Conduct Bureau on his assumption of duty as Chief of Army Staff in July 2015. The records are there at the Bureau for all those interested to check.
“General Buratai has nothing to hide and leads by personal example which he encourage his subordinates to emulate. He was the first military service chief to declare his assets and asked all officers to do so. This is unprecedented and has no doubt gave credence to the government’s anti-corruption crusade.

“As a matter of fact, the Nigerian Army has for a long time never had a wonderful, visionary and exemplary leadership like what we are witnessing now. The welfare of troops has been enhanced. They now have uniforms and boots and other equipment, while training is being intensified. What is more appealing is the improved civil-military relations and respect for human rights.”
The groups, while warning those behind the smear campaigns to refrain from their plan as it will not portend any good to the society and them, stressed that, “Instead of distracting the Chief of Army Staff, we should support and encourage him and the Nigerian Army as they continue to serve the nation better.”