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By Emmanuel Nzomiwu
Recently, the Senate Press Corps (SPC) nominated the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, for the Ambassador of Senate Award (ASA). According to the body, Ngige’s nomination for the award was in recognition of his series of troubleshooting efforts and interventions for the facilitation of industrial harmony in the country. The award will be formally conferred on him at a ceremony in June.
For keen observers of events in Nigeria’s corridors of power, this award is special, coming from the Fourth Estate of the Realm and considering the fact that Senator Ngige has no record of craving awards like other Nigerian politicians. It is an indisputable fact that, since his assumption of leadership in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, he has exhibited a high level of competence and proficiency in the discharge of his mandate as Nigeria’s chief labour officer. Like Caesar, he came, he saw and conquered.
To buttress the assertions that I made in the preceding paragraphs, I need to refresh our minds with the events at the beginning of the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Recall that on assumption of office on May 29, 2015, Buhari inherited from his predecessor, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, an economy adjudged as “technically in recession.” One year after, precisely in August 2016, the economy slipped into full-blown recession.
How did the Nigerian economy slip into recession at the dawn of the APC government? First, the crude oil price in the world market went down from $100 per barrel to $30 and even $15 at a point. Secondly, the militancy in the Niger Delta region, culminated in the blowing up of crude oil pipelines, thereby drastically reducing Nigeria’s oil production, with the output nose-diving from 2.5 million barrels to one million barrels. At a point, the output came down to as low as 700,000 barrels. Although Nigeria, as Africa’s top oil producer and exporter, depends on crude oil sales for 90 per cent of its foreign exchange earnings, these aforementioned factors asphyxiated its mono economy, rendering it almost insolvent.
The Buhari government quickly went to work, introducing swift measures to recover the economy and put it back on track. Beyond deployment of well-articulated fiscal policies, the government embarked on economic diversification, prioritization of agriculture, lowering of imports and other growth-oriented economic policies. Besides, bailout funds were released to many states that were unable to pay the salaries of their workers before the advent of the Buhari administration. All these efforts resulted in the quick rebound of the Nigerian economy from recession in 2017.
Sequel to a push by the organised labour for wage increase, the Buhari government initiated a review of the minimum wage in the same 2017. A committee chaired by former Head of Service of the Federation, Amma Pepple, with Ngige as the co-chairman, midwived the new N30,000 minimum wage. President Buhari signed it into law at the tail end of his first tenure in April 2019.
When Mr. President took oath of office for a second tenure on May 29, 2019, Nigerians were optimistic of full recovery and growth of the economy, going by the policy interventions made during the first tenure. Nobody contemplated that a pandemic of the magnitude of COVID-19 was lurking around the corner. Like an unwanted guest, the pandemic struck nine months later, hitting the economy very hard, amid low oil prices.
To stop the spread of the deadly and highly infectious disease, Nigeria, just like other countries, introduced lockdowns and other measures such as domestic and international restriction of movement. The pandemic and attendant containment measures had adverse consequences on various sectors of the economy, including agriculture, transportation, mining, manufacturing, commerce, food processing and construction, among others. Even the educational sector was not spared as schools were shut down. In the ensuing milieu, the economy became terribly battered.
The pandemic left the labour sector volatile and unstable. The health sector, our first line of defense against the pandemic, got engulfed in labour crisis. On September 7, 2020, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) embarked on strike to protest lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), life assurance and nonpayment of hazard allowances to their members. Senator Ngige quickly apprehended the dispute and compelled the doctors to embrace dialogue. His intervention prompted the doctors to call off the strike within 24 hours.
One week after the resolution of the doctors’ strike, other health workers, under the aegis of Joint Health Sector Unions and Assembly of Healthcare Professionals, commenced an indefinite strike, which paralyzed medical services in public hospitals across the country. The grievances of the health workers included inadequacy of PPEs, nonpayment of hazard allowances, lack of life assurance and structural decay in the health sector. Again, Ngige came to “bell the cat.”
His intervention in the NARD and JOHESU strikes, apart from bringing peace to the health sector, yielded other positive results. Today, there is abundance of PPEs in government owned hospitals. There is now Group Life Assurance for all health workers, which is extended to all public sector workers. Discussions are also ongoing for the upward review of hazard allowances for health workers in Nigeria.
The same September 2020, tension engulfed the country when the two arms of the organised labour-the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) threatened to embark on a nationwide mass protest/strike over a proposed increase in fuel price and upward adjustment of electricity tariffs. This strike would have been disruptive and dangerous, especially on account of the fragility of the economy in the wake of the pandemic. Ngige quickly convened rounds of conciliation meetings between the Federal Government and labour. At the end of the day, the organised labour shelved the strike and embraced dialogue.
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In November 2020, the NBS announced that the country had slipped into yet another recession after the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted for the second consecutive quarter. The recession had debilitating effects on the world of work, resulting in income losses, especially in the informal sector. Industrial disputes bedeviled the formal sector.
But Ngige’s intervention turned the prolonged strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) into a blessing for the university system, with both the academic staff and non-academic staff smiling home with the sum of N40 billion as earned allowances. In addition, visitation panels for federal universities have since been inaugurated, alongside the negotiating team for the review of entitlements of the university workers. In his valedictory address a few days ago, outgoing ASUU president, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, expressed appreciation to Ngige for his intervention.
In fact, it is not in doubt that his ability to successfully conciliate labour disputes contributed immeasurably in navigating the Nigerian economy out of recession in February this year.
However, the spate of industrial crises did not abate with the rebound of the economy. In April this year, the resident doctors again embarked on a nationwide strike in the middle of a second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. The indefatigable Minister rose to the occasion once more and brought the doctors back to their duty post. He earned commendation from the NARD leadership for the resolution of the strike.
In a letter of appreciation jointly signed by the President of NARD, Okhouaihesuyi Uyilawa and General Secretary, Dr Jerry-Kunle Isogun, the resident doctors thanked the Minister for bringing their plight to the attention of the Federal Government and asking for time to solve them. They also commended him for his outstanding leadership qualities, which had resulted in the timely resolution of the lingering issues in the health sector, even as they described him as a medical elder of repute.
Most recently, he re-enacted his conciliation skills in the face-off between the NLC and Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El Rufai over the disengagement of workers by the State Government. His mediation stopped the industrial dispute from degenerating into a full scale national strike. The two parties in the dispute were directed to return to the negotiation table.
What about the tricky industrial dispute of the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) and Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) over the non-implementation of judicial and legislative autonomy by the 36 States of the Federation? Courtesy of his mediation, a historic agreement has been signed today by all the stakeholders, paving the way for the commencement of State Legislature/Judiciary Autonomy in line with the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
In all his social dialogues with the organised labour, he has been creative, empathetic, flexible and tough. Unlike his predecessors, he is not given to signing unrealistic agreements. Being a member of the Economic Sustainability Committee, he knows about the depressing state of government finances and puts everything on the table while dialoguing with the labour unions.
Besides resolving industrial disputes, Ngige has been enforcing and boosting standards and building institutions to support the bargaining power of Nigerian workers. In March this year, the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) was inaugurated at Owerri, the capital of Imo State. The new NLAC will serve from 2021 to 2025 and is expected to offer advisory services to the Minister of Labour on administration, employment relations, labour productivity, among others.
The inauguration of the council was significant for two reasons. Firstly, no meeting of the council has been held since 2014 owing to paucity of funds and other avoidable administrative issues. Secondly, it was the first meeting of the council since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the international fora, his deft diplomatic moves brought Nigeria back to the Governing Board of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) where Nigeria today enjoys membership of four strategic committees.
In conclusion, I see Ngige’s nomination by the Senate Press Corps as “an honour to whom honour is due.” Livelihoods were safeguarded despite two economic recessions and a pandemic in the six years of the Buhari government. The pandemic weighed on jobs globally, but the incidence of retrenchment and redundancy in Nigeria was not as much as initially feared. Workers showed some understanding because of the confidence and trust they have in the Labour Minister whose interventions, mitigated the impact of the pandemic on the labour sector.
• Nzomiwu, a journalist and public affairs analyst writes from Abuja.
