NLC will never compromise on workers' welfare, says Odah .

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 16:46 Editor Business Services - Appointments   .THERE had been calls by groups for Nigeria Labour Congress to lend its voice to the agitation for solution to the heated polity on the heels of President Umaru Yar'Adua's ill-health and absence from the country, till when he resurfaced last month.

Also, allegations of bribery were levelled against NLC on deregulation. In this interview with COLLINS OLAYINKA, NLC's General Secretary, John Odah, gives responses to these issues and others. Excerpts:

WHAT were the grey areas you contended with government on deregulation?

The NLC has publicised its opposition to deregulation that is heavily on the side of increase of the price of petroleum products and that is one area of disagreement between labour and government. We have also made the point that as an oil producing country, we should be having 100 per cent of the petroleum products and not just fuel, diesel and kerosene that should be produced here in Nigeria which right now, the bulk of it is imported.

We had hoped that based on this, we should ordinarily not have difficulty with a government that is patriotic. It is desirable that Nigeria as one of the biggest oil producing countries in the world, should be refining petroleum products for at least its internal consumption. We currently have a situation where, apart from the four refineries, which we were told could only produce about 60 per cent of our needs when they are working in full capacity.

With this scenario, it shows that the extra 40 per cent needs to be filled which also requires that there is the need to establish more refineries in the country. So, in a nutshell, these are the critical issues that we have raised in our discussions with government.

Is the absence of the private sector inability to build refineries which has been attributed to non availability of conducive atmosphere a tenable reason for the continued refining of oil outside Nigeria?

Our answer to the inability of the private sector to invest in the downstream sector because of the uneconomic atmosphere prevailing there, is the fact that the private sector does not have more resources than the government and therefore if the private sector refused to invest in the establishment of new refineries, because it is important for our own national security, important for the welfare of the Nigerian people, then government must device a means where it would either establish refineries alone or compel those who are drilling oil from our land to share the cost of establishing refineries in Nigeria so that they just don't take the easy way out. These companies take oil out of here and then take it to their own countries to add value to it and then resell to us.

We think that asking for oil to be refined in our country for value added is a patriotic thing to do because this is in the overall interest of Nigeria and Nigerians.

Why was the NLC team not at a meeting called by the Acting President this week, which had four governors in attendance?

Our not there was in strict observance of our wanting to keep to the democratic tradition. After our meeting of December 15 during which we stated what government should do regarding the downstream sector in terms of repairing of and establishing new refineries and stop equating deregulation with price increase, we then had another meeting with the Acting President on February 22 and he requested that a new committee should be formed to take a look at issues that have kept labour at loggerhead with government on this matter. We felt that it was important to inform the National Executive Council (NEC) of the new request of the Acting President and that is why we called this meeting. We had hoped that the NEC will hold before the inauguration of this committee but unfortunately, it held before the meeting. We wanted to get a mandate from NEC to attend the meeting but unfortunately, that did not happen and that was why we did not attend the meeting. I am sure during the subsequent meeting of this committee, the NLC being the biggest centre in the country will take its place on the committee.

The NNPC on Friday launched its transformation programme even before the agreement with labour on deregulation, is NLC uncomfortable with this?

No not at all. NNPC as a corporation, which is established to execute particular assignment does not need the permission of the NLC to perform such duties.

Therefore, if the NNPC is working to reposition itself in anticipation of the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), it is certainly within their right to do so. Our areas of disagreement with the NNPC is well known as we know that it is not the NNPC that is responsible for increasing the price of petroleum products; it is the political authorities that direct them to do so.

The NLC believes that the quick passage of the PIB because it is more nationalistic and that this country is likely to earn more revenue from a new consolidated PIB rather than relying on several petroleum laws that do not guarantee maximum benefits to Nigerians.

We have canvassed in the past that the National Assembly should expedite action on the passage of the PIB and that they should not allow pressure from International Oil Companies (IOCs) who are in not in a hurry to pay additional money to Nigeria, to derail the passage of the bill. As a patriotic organisation NLC believes that the Nigerian State, in consonance with Chapter 2 of the Nigerian Constitution, must play an active role in the petroleum industry because it is the commanding height of our economy and the constitution which is our ground norm did say that the state must participate and play an active role in the commanding height of the economy. So, we will support the restructuring of the NNPC so that it can play high yield roles that other national oil companies are playing in national economies around the world. We think that it is part of the tragedy of the Nigerian society that our own national oil corporation lags far behind its contemporaries like the one in Algeria, Venezuela and Brazil. If the NNPC had not seen itself as a means of rent-seeking organisation and if they had been involved in production and distribution and other aspects of the industry, Nigeria would have perhaps earned two or three times what is earning in oil sale and royalties and not be in the kind of situation we are currently. So, we will work with any patriotic segments of the workforce in the NNPC that would see it as a national duty to turn around the industry in such a way that it helps boost the economy.

On the allegation that large sums of money changed hands at the December 15, 2009 meeting to bribe NEC members to support deregulation, what is your response to this?

I think it is a height of mischief for anybody to say that. I have been in the NLC for 23 years. During the time of Ali Ciroma as the president, the NLC has always made it a point to fund meetings of the National Executive Council and same went on during the presidency of Pascal Bafyau to Adams Oshiomhole's period. For the past three years or thereabout that Abdulwahed Omar has been the president, we have always managed to fund the National Executive Council meetings of the NLC.

From experience in the 80s and early 90s, we decide that we must look for resources to shoulder the cost of our state councils, which in any case are the administrative arm of the NLC in the state. We try to discourage a situation where industrial unions which produce the state councils - state council chairmen and secretaries - are made to pay for them because the type of independence we expect them to have in order for them to represent the view points of workers will be intact.

This has been the situation.

Why is NLC not being very firm on deregulation and the chaotic situation in the Presidency occasioned by the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua?

In our new message to Nigerian workers, the NLC was very clear on these issues.

On President Yar'Adua, while we wished him quick recovery, this must not be allowed to paralyse the organs of government and the then Vice President and now the Acting President down to the ministers must be allowed to do their work. 

The Congress has had two Administrative Council (NAC) and Central Working Committee (CWC) meetings that were devoted to the state of the nation around this matter and at these meetings, we especially the NAC that held on February 5, we asked that Vice President be vested with the full presidential powers.

Then when the National Assembly acted and vested the Vice President with full presidential powers and when our CWC met we endorsed the position of the National Assembly on the matter. Now if some sections of the media decided not to highlight these positions on the account of the fact that the only thing they see that is acceptable to them is when we go on strike, well, we have no control over what they report but what the current leadership of the NLC would not do is to bend to anybody's idea about what we should do. We feel we have sufficient understanding of the Nigerian situation and political realities as to chart the course that we think is in the overall interest of our members.

We, more than most people are very much aware about the dangers of anti-democratic forces hijacking the political space because each time anti-democratic forces like the military come into the political space, we have suffered perhaps much more than any other organised groups. On three occasions during military rules since the establishment of the NLC, we had been dissolved and stay in the cooler for upward of four and half years. During Sani Abacha era, we stayed out of action for 18 months, 10 months out between February and December of 1988 during Ibrahim Babangida regime and during Obasanjo we had outright dissolution of the NLC between 1975 and 1976 before it was reconstituted between 1977 and 1978. So, apart from the hindrance of development as a result of arbitrariness of military rule, we know what military rule stands for and we do not want people to railroad us into what would give the military an excuse to come. On this, we do not have any apology that we have been very cautious in our approach to this matter.

We think that political crisis like this helps to make the democracy to mature and that the political actors and institutions which comprise the National Assembly, political parties and other structures like the Executive Council of the Federation which are vested with the responsibilities of resolving this matter should be allowed to resolve it.

We should allow them to make their mistakes and learn from it so that democracy will endure in our country. We do not think that quick fix is necessarily the best solution.

Of course, the NLC has a long history of taking conscious decision to go on the street and protest against government and its policies and in that wise nobody can teach us about the importance of protests.