…As UN expends $70m on humanitarian assistance in North-East***
Rising from the dent over its messed up nationwide strike, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC ) on Thursday condemned threat by the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), to sack workers, if the new national minimum wage of N30,000 is implemented.
The workers were however, mostly unamused.
Mr Ayuba Wabba, NLC President, in a statement issued in Abuja, said the threat to sack workers is not new in the struggle for review of national minimum wage and would therefore not intimidate the workers.
Wabba was reacting to the statement made by the Chairman of NGF, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, governor of Zamfara, threatening to sack workers on the account of the new national minimum wage of N30, 000.
He said that the process of negotiation by the tripartite social partners for a new wage has ended and a new National Minimum Wage of N30,000 agreed upon by government, labour and employers in the private sector.
“Therefore, the current one by the governor of Zamfara cannot be used to intimidate labour.
“The consequences of workers retrenchment are too grievous for any political office holder truly elected by the people to contemplate.
“Few political office holders are bent on enslaving Nigerian workers with peanuts mislabeled as salaries.
“We urge such elected public officials to subject their humongous salaries and allowances, reputed to be among the highest in the world to public perusal.
“Pro rata with the minimum wage they want to force down the throats of Nigerian workers”, he said, urging each of the state governor to go to their respective state and inform workers on their individual position on the new national minimum wage of N30, 000.
The NLC president further urged workers to remain steadfast and firm on their rights to decent wages and improved living conditions.
“To the oppressors, we have only one answer for you, we will never sleep on our rights.
“We hereby reiterate our directive to Nigerian workers to vote out any politician or political party that refuses to pay the new national minimum wage of N30, 000.
“We shall continue to consolidate our efforts to strengthen already existing platforms and structures to give teeth to our resolve to vote out anti-labour governors and politicians in the forthcoming 2019 general election”, Wabba said.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to speedily present to the National Assembly the bill on the National Minimum Wage for appropriate amendment and implementation.
“It would interest Nigerians to know that the new national minimum wage of N30,000 was a product of intense and robust negotiations at the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee that lasted for one year.
“At the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee, state governments were represented by six states, one state from each of the six geo-political zones.
Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (COHA) says it has spent $70 million in providing humanitarian assistance in the north-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
The agency also says over seven million people in the region are in need of life-saving assistance due to the Boko Haram insurgency which started in 2009.
Ms Samantha Newport, Head of Communications, COHA, made disclosure on Thursday in Lagos while addressing newsmen on the UN’s humanitarian efforts in the North-East.
Newport said the humanitarian crisis in the North-East Nigeria that had spilled into neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, and was one of the most severe in the world today.
She said: “More than seven million people are affected in the three worst affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
“1.8 million people are displaced internally. With other global crises competing for scarce resources, the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF), a funding mechanism, was set up in May 2017.
“The NHF is managed by COHA under the leadership of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr Edward Kallon.
“The NHF has raised 70 million dollars to date in contributions and pledges, thanks to the generous support of the following countries: Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium.
“Others are Norway, Ireland, Switzerland, the Republic of Korea, Iceland, Canada, Spain, Luxembourg, the Arab Gulf Programme for Development, Malta, Azerbaijan and Sri Lanka.”
According to her, the funds have been allocated to urgent life-saving needs, with an emphasis this year on assisting new arrivals with food, shelter and safe water.
She said the NHF had continued to assist internally displaced people in crowded camps and host communities where services were stretched with new arrivals and hunger, malnutrition and sickness were rife.
Newport said the NHF had also provided funding to help contain the cholera outbreak in the north-east which was considered to be the worst outbreak in the past 10 years.
She said the UN currently had 3,000 workers and volunteers carrying out the services in the region, adding that no fewer than 2,500 of them were Nigerians.
Newport also said that the UN, in collaboration with the private sector in Nigeria, would on Nov. 15, inaugurate its first NHF Private Sector Initiative (NHF-PSI) to provide more funds for humanitarian assistance in the north-east.
