Hardship: Most govs live permanently in Abuja – NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday 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.
Mr. Joe Ajaero, President of the NLC, made this statement during what seemed to be a town hall meeting with workers at the NLC Secretariat in Lokoja, Kogi State. The NLC leadership is in Kogi to launch and commission 10 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses, provided to the state chapter of the congress to help alleviate transportation issues.
The town hall meeting was organized to allow workers to voice their concerns and demands directly to the NLC leadership, so these issues could be brought to the attention of the governor. Ajaero mentioned that the leadership had already visited five zones but expressed disappointment that governors were often absent, typically having traveled to Abuja.
Highlighting the difficult economic conditions, Ajaero pointed out that workers were already struggling with the high cost of living. He emphasized that the government’s consideration of increasing telecom tariffs was pushing workers to their limits. He assured that the leadership would present workers’ problems and demands to the governor, noting that during their visits to five zones, the governor was only present in one.
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 center 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.”
He said that Kogi State was strategic to the Congress because it had union leaders as governor and deputy, adding that Governor Usman Ododo was one of his officials in Niger State and the deputy, an official of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT.
He said: “So, we want to make this as a town hall meeting to listen to you to know what has been done and what has not been done properly, so we take it to them.
“To us, it is like home coming. We want to come and interact with them to find out whether they are doing those things we are criticising others for.”
On the proscription of labour unions in state-owned tertiary institutions by Governor Yahaya Bello’s administration, the NLC President, who expressed surprise that such thing exists in the state, said the state government lacked the right to proscribe unions under the exclusive legislative list.
He said: “Let me say here, union practice falls under the Exclusive Legislative List in the Constitution. No governor has powers 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?”
Earlier, the workers told the NLC President that over 10 years, the Kogi State Polytechnics, Kogi State University, the State Colleges of Education, Technology and Nursing had been under proscription by the state government.
Other demands workers wanted the intervention of the NLC were non- implementation of annual salary increase, non-provision of housing for workers, as well as shortage of teachers in primary and junior secondary schools, among others.