As Ngige exits the ILO

By Ibrahim Jibia

On Thursday , March 23 , 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige deposited before the Governing Board of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) two instruments – Convention 1975 (143) on Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) and Convention 1997 (181) on Private Employment Agencies, ratified and signed by President Muhammadu Buhari. He had earlier in November 2022, deposited convention 2006 C (187) on Promotional framework for occupational safety and Health, and 2019 C (190) on Violence and Harassment to the ILO.

The event came as his last official outing at the ILO , drawing the curtain on the nearly eight-year odyssey of international labour diplomacy, which started in November 2015, when he first attended the African Regional Labour Centre(ARLAC) meeting in South Africa, shortly after assuming office as Minister. The Director General of the ILO, Gilbert Houngbo who received the instruments, though took office last year, is familiar with Nigeria’s trajectory, having served the ILO in other capacities hitherto. That occasion therefore came handy in valedictory, a footnote to Ngige’s huge symphony of international labour embassage.

The Nigeria’s Minister of Labour has in fact come a long way in global labour administration, bringing honour, acclaim and laurel to the country. These sterling contributions did not escape the attention of the Director General while receiving the instruments from Nigeria, as he showered encomiums on Ngige for his outstanding efforts to the world labour body. “Nigeria’s Minister of Labour has made outstanding efforts. He is very knowledgeable and industrious. He has been a great voice in the Governing Body and we will appreciate if he keeps in touch with the ILO even after his present tenure as Nigeria’s Minister.” This rare attribution by Houngbo, syncs with similar commendation by his predecessor, the British born Guy Ryder, who in 2019, described Ngige’s re-appointment as Minister by President Buhari, as one of the best appointments by the administration. Rydder would further add in his letter that Ngige was a perfect choice.

But how did this former Governor of Anambra State fare in leading Nigeria’s tripartite community in the ILO? This is not far-fetched. Before the Buhari administration came on board, Nigeria, the world’s greatest black nation sat outside the conclave that decides the fate of the organisation’s 199 member countries for a whole decade! Nigeria sat in one remote corner, an obscure recess at the world labour body, until the uncommon diplomatic finesse of Nigeria’s Minister of Labour, reversed the untypical course that Africa’s giant found itself in. For ten years before Ngige took over, Nigeria would gather at the yearly International Labour Conference (ILC), June every year, watch the sun-kissed forests, paving the beautiful streets of Cornavin, Geneva, glee in photo-ops in what the critical Nigerian press had termed “ a jamboree” and thereafter, head home. Ngige reversed all that !

First, the Minister revived Nigeria’s eminence as the rallying point of Africa in global politics, a big financial member of the ILO , and indeed the first African nation to open an ILO country office in 1956. Ngige saw through the disparate Africa Labour Region, weakened by age-long colonial factors and sought a unity of vision, goal and of voice, starting with West Africa. At every ILO meeting, Ngige would do person to person, one African Minister after another, meeting before meeting. In doing this, he successfully pushed for intra-Africa diplomatic openness, in order to reduce the neo-colonial stranglehold that made effete, any alliance of English and French Africa. By June 2016, he has succeeded largely, as Nigeria’s profile resumed an upward tick. The nation’s tripartite community, comprising the Government Group led by the Minister, Workers’ Group represented by the NLC/ TUC and the Organised Private Sector represented by NECA were all elected into the Governing Board of ILO. The Government group was first elected as deputy and later full membership , known as titular.

Through his pragmatic labour diplomacy that galvanized other African Ministers, Ngige was elected the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Government Group of the ILO in 2018 and served till 2020. Additionally, African Ministers nominated him as the lead speaker on every matter, common to Africa. Thus, he became the spokesperson of the African Ministers of Labour at the ILO and in this position, led what would have been a big walk-out by African Ministers over the democratization and removal of the last vestiges of colonialism in the ILO, in November 2018. Africa won a resounding victory that day, as the forces of neo-colonialism dialed back . In the same period, a vibrant and dogged leader of the NLC then, Ayuba Wabba emerged the President of the International Trade Union Confederation, Africa’s first in that position. The wheel has turned full cycle for Nigeria’s Labour diplomacy! A golden era, you may say . The crucial role Nigeria played in the election of an African, Houngbo, a Togolese, as the new Director General of the ILO in 2022, against formidable candidates from France and Australia is a direct measure of influence Nigeria wields and the sky-reaching efforts of Ngige.

Earlier in February 2017, in Zimbabwe, Ngige pushed for the democratization of the African Regional Labour Centre (ARLAC) when he pulled together, the West and North African representatives to break the choking grip of the South Africa Region, pivoted around Zimbabwe, had on ARLAC. Using his position of influence also, Ngige attracted the hosting of the first ever ILO Global Youth Forum in Abuja in August 2019 targeted at broadening the band of job creation. That is the first time the event would hold outside Europe in hundred years of the ILO. Under his leadership too, Nigeria was equally recognized as a member of the Alliance 8.7, the flagship countries in the bulwark of fight against child labour.

Similarly, at the Labour House, Washington D.C in September 2016 for the Africa Growth and Opportunity Conference (AGOA), Ngige moved a motion for the establishment of the African Skills Development Bank to be sited in Nigeria and called on the US Department of Labour (USDOL) and others to assist Nigeria and other developing countries to reduce poverty which is the main driving force of child Labour. This quest for the establishment of the African Skills Centre is not yet realized but the United States in 2022, gave $4m to Nigeria and another $5m to be shared between Nigeria and Liberia for poverty reduction programmes as well as projects to poor families in mining and Cocoa farmers’ communities. Varying range of technical support which Nigeria attracted from the ILO since 2016 in training of labour personnel and the expertise in the review and standardization of labour laws and practices are such that would ordinarily cost Nigeria , millions of dollars. The summary is that whoever comes in as the next Labour Minister will certainly find a big shoe but fortunately, Ngige is also leaving behind, a carefully crafted system in his institutionalism policy, that will ease labour administration for his successors .