*Past FCT Ministers Never Allowed Labour Issues Get To Court,He Notes
By Felix Durumbah, Abuja
To the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike, has come wise counsel over the continued face-off with staff members of FCT Administration (FCTA),who have been on indefinite strike over poor conditions of service since Monday last week.
The counsel is: Urgently withdraw the case in court,delegate the FCTA Head of Service or Chief of Staff to the Minister to negotiate with the workers’ leaders on their demands and immediately implement any agreement reached by the parties.
The wise words came from retired Director of Information, FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB), Malam Mohammed Sani Lawal.
Today, the National Industrial Court (NIC) is billed to continue hearing in the case filed by Wike (first Claimant) and FCTA (second Claimant) against the workers’ umbrella Joint Unions Action Congress (JUAC) leaders, Mrs Rifkatu Iortyer (president, first Defendant) and Abdullahi Umar Saleh (secretary, second Defendant) seeking to compel the workers to, among others, return to work.
Speaking exclusively to People&Politics, the experienced ex-director and respected public relations guru said adhering to his advice was the way to harmonious industrial relations in FCTA.
He noted that the bellicose pathway adopted by the Minister by going to court over a matter the former director stressed is avoidable, had ushered in a trust fracture between the feuding parties, weighing heavily, he pointed out, against the Minister.
Recalling that in all his long years of service to FCTA under several Ministers, “this is the first time something like this is happening as past Ministers avoided allowing situations as this to reach this stage”, Malam Lawal said Wike can smother the present tension by simply withdrawing the case in court and negotiating with the staff, for the sake of peace and corporate progress.
Dwelling on some of the workers’ demands, the respected information and public relations guru described the demands and, the manner of seeking to attain them, as genuine, constitutional, legitimate and in consonance with extant Public Service Rules (PSR).
He said: “With NLC national body throwing their weight behind FCT JUAC, Wike may not win on this, most especially when the workers’ demands are very fundamental.
“How do you tell the world that for six months you have not given departments overhead funds? How do you expect them to function?
“The NHF, it’s only in FCTA a worker will retire from service and you spend more than five years without refund; other federal civil servants collect theirs’ after two months of retirement.
“Non-payment of promotion arrears; this is wrong. How do you treat people that have done so much for you? These are people that have done the designs and brain work you’re implementing now (in roads, bridges and others) and yet he refuses to pay them.”
Malam Lawal added: “Obviously, this strike would have been prevented. The Minister should have invited the leadership of the union to a meeting through Head of Service and top management staff and start working on some of their demands.
“But allowing the strike to start and rush to court is very unfortunate or,maybe, he was not properly advised.
“But what he needs now is damage control — and that’s when the issue of trust will come in. He has to urgently invite them to a meeting, and make sure he implements whatever they resolve immediately.
“Finally,he needs a very competent and experienced Permanent Secretary (PS) who can conveniently handle all these matters without allowing them to get out of hand and he must also be ready to accept recommendations from the PS, so that his political activities will not interfere with his Ministerial mandate.”
Urging the Minister to have a sense of the future as FCTA will continue to exist whenever his appointment ends, the former director said: “He should learn how to trust, because he will not be there forever and work will not stop because of him.”
*PHOTO CAPTION: Malam Lawal.
