The Nigeria Labour Congress President, Mr. Joe Ajaero, has stated that no governor has powers to ban labour unions, noting that union practice falls under the executive legislative list in the Constitution.
This is just as he lamented that most governors are now living permanently in Abuja at the detriment of their states.
Ajaero was reacting to the proscription of labour unions in state-owned tertiary institutions by former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, at a town hall meeting with workers at the NLC Secretariat, Lokoja, the state capital.
He said, “Let me say here, union practice falls under the exclusive legislative list in the Constitution. No governor has the power to ban them, you don’t ban what you don’t have control over.
“Unions are registered nationally by the Registrar of Trade Unions. For administrative convenience, they may choose to have branches in states, so what are you now banning?”
The NLC president, who expressed surprise that such a thing exists in the state, said the state government lacked the right to proscribe unions under the exclusive legislative list.
He, however, lamented that most governors abandon their states and live permanently in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, while the people they were supposed to govern are facing hardship.
Ajaero added that the NLC leadership is in Kogi State to deliver and inaugurate 10 Compressed Natural Gas buses provided to the state chapter of the congress to ease transportation problems.
Ajaero, who noted that the leadership had visited five zones, regretted that the governors were always absent, having travelled to Abuja.
While stressing that workers were feeling the heat of the harsh economic realities, with the high cost of living, Ajaero said for government to contemplate increasing tariff on telecom, was pushing workers too far.
Ajaero said, “However, there is a problem we are having in trends because most governors are now living permanently in Abuja. We have moved to about five zones, Kogi is about the fifth zone. We have met governors in only one state. Each time you go there, they are in Abuja and this is affecting governance.
“I think we should be able to manage the centre and the units, so people will have the feeling of democracy, the dividend of democracy so that people can talk to their leaders.
“So, if we capture all these things, the information you are going to give us will be conditional if the governor is around. If he’s around, we will convey your information to him. If he’s not around, whosoever he’s going to send, we pass it to him.”
