Former President-General, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Peter Esele has warned that Nigeria may be headed back to recession, except defaulting state governors urgently pay workers backlog of salaries owed them. The ex-labour chief decried the diversion of bailout funds provided by the Federal Government to settle the embarrasing wage debt that has caused untold suffering by the Nigerian workers. He said it is time the Federal Government applied sanctions on some of the governors who failed to pay the workers.
Giving the advice while speaking in an interview with TUNDE THOMAS, Esele who was also a former President, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN further talked on the recent face-off between Group Managing Director of NNPC, Maikanti Baru and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu among others.
What is your reaction to the pathetic state of Nigerian workers, and pensioners being owed backlog of salaries and allowances despite the fact the Federal Government giving financial bailouts on two different occasions to state governments to enable them clear the arrears?
It is very sad. It is very pathetic. It shows that those people we call leaders and indeed the state governors are not only selfish but are also self-centred.
State governors in the first instance have no justification to be owing arrears of salaries and allowances because the two previous bailouts given to them were meant to solve the problem of salary arrears.
Sadly and very unfortunate, then the state governors collected the two previous bailouts but some of them either out of sheer wickedness or disdain for workers diverted the two to other uses, and hence were unable to meet their obligations to workers and pensioners.
Let me sound this note of warning, failure of some state governors to pay workers their dues can lead to Nigeria slipping back into economic recession.
I believe the time has come for the Federal Government to apply sanctions on those governors still owing workers.
I can state this categorically that no state governor would have that kind of effrontery to divert funds meant to pay workers to other uses if it was former President Olusegun Obasanjo that is in power. No state governor would have done such a thing during Obasanjo’s time. Our state governors today are treating President Buhari like a weakling.
The other time, I watched President Buhari lamenting and expressing concern that some state governors were still owing workers despite the fact that the Federal Government under his watch had released huge sums of money on two different occasions for that purpose.
Buhari should stop dealing with state governors as a gentleman; he should stop the carrot approach he has been adopting in dealing with them. The time has come for Buhari to apply the hammer on the state governors by compelling them to render an account of how the two previous bailouts they collected were spent. What is killing Nigeria today is our failure to promote accountability and transparency in governance.
It is not enough for President Buhari to sympathise with workers and pensioners being owed. It is Buhari’s duty to ask these state governors how they spent money collected from the Federal Government. Buhari will ask the EFCC and ICPC to investigate these state governors. They are not above the law.
What is the way out of the quagmire, as the state governors have just recently made a passionate plea to President Buhari for fresh bailout?
What should be done first is to ensure that state governors provide detailed account of how they spent the previous ones collected.
Then, President Buhari should know this if he has not been told that owing workers salaries and allowances in a way promote corruption. It breeds corruption. You ask in what way? It is very simple; workers that are being owed salary arrears may be tempted to exploit leakages in the Civil Service to look for alternative means of sourcing money to survive, and also to meet their financial obligations to their families, neighbours and the society at large.
If these state governors that are owing are not heartless, how can they divert money meant to pay workers for other purposes? The only thing that can restore sanity and bring these state governors some of whom behave like emperors to order is for President Buhari to demand accountability from them. Some of these state governors have become arrogant but what they don’t know is that the position they are occupying is through the grace of God, and votes of the people.
Imagine a state like Kogi, the situation in that state is very sad. Governor Bello has really disappointed a lot of people. Being a young man, there were a lot of expectations from him, but he has become a big disappointment.
Kogi State today is the most unfriendly to workers and pensioners – the governor should retrace his steps, otherwise he should realize that 2019 is around the corner and he may want to seek re-election for another term, and already he should know that he is not in the good books of workers and pensioners in the state.
During a recent meeting with President Buhari, some state governors made a passionate appeal that the Federal Government should give them another fresh bailout.
Cuts in … What an insult. That’s a big insult. Do these governors have conscience at all? I think these state governors are overstepping their bounds.
President Buhari should ignore them. But if at all he would listen to them, he should compel them to render an account of how they spent the two previous bailouts they collected from the Federal Government. Most of the state governors have little or nothing to show for the previous bailouts they collected.
Buhari should be firm and assertive on this issue. I’m saying this because I know the governors will put pressure on him, some will even threaten him with 2019 but Buhari should not cave in. Rather than succumbing to the governors’ demand for a fresh bailout, Buhari should ask EFCC and ICPC to investigate how the governors spent the previous bailouts. If we want to make progress as a nation, we should not only accord due attention to probity, but we must also promote transparency and accountability in government.
What’s your reaction to the threat by Reformed Niger-Delta Avengers to resume bombing of oil facilities in Niger-Delta?
My advice to these people is that they should have a rethink. If they have any grievances, are there no other avenues to express their feelings other than through bombings of oil pipeline.
What they should realize is that it is even the people of Niger-Delta that will suffer the consequences of the bombings more. Although the bombings will result in economic losses for the Federal Government, but what about the damage to the ecological set up of the host communities and the surrounding areas?. Bombings will lead to oil spillage which will kill fish and other aquatic animals.
These militants should learn a lesson from Ogoni oil spill example. Now we have been told that the clean up of Ogoni oil spill will take several years. So, why can’t these people embrace dialogue in resolving the matter.
Again, I believe that the Avengers and other militants in the Niger-Delta should ask their leaders questions about reasons for the underdevelopment of Niger-Delta.
Are you saying that Niger-Delta leaders have questions to answer on issues relating to the development of the region?
Of course, yes. The question they should ask their leaders is this: what have those leaders especially between 1999 and now been doing with huge allocations of money running into several billions of naira and with the money allocated for the development of the region. It is very unfair to be tackling only the Federal Government every time.
These leaders have collected so much money, but there has been little or no development at all in the region. Then some of these so-called militants, I don’t even understand them. Some of them are in the habit of fomenting trouble or making threats so that they would be invited for negotiations, and the moment they are settled, they forget about the so-called struggle and abandon their people.
Niger-Delta leaders, especially those who served the people between 1999 and now as state governors should be made to account for how they spent money allocated for the development of the region.