“NO” TO POLICY DICTATORSHIP BY GOVERNORS

The call by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) for immediate removal of so-called subsidy on petroleum products as another belated precondition for the implementation of the legally permissible Minimum Wage Act has sadly taken us back to the discredited era of immediate policy dictatorship of the military.  This policy dictatorship by the governors is undemocratic, unacceptable and condemnable. The governors under the aegis of NGF should face up to the challenge of governance which the new Minimum wage poses in their respective states instead of arm-twisting a newly elected President to pursue unpopular policies capable of promoting instant mass disaffection. Nigeria is operating a Presidential/Federal system of government.  The Governors who are demanding for true Federalism should stop ganging up in Abuja pushing for top-down unitarist self serving policies. They are active to reportedly dictating ministerial list to the President. To read that the governors are dictating immediate removal of subsidy on petroleum products to the President is one dictatorship too intolerable. Nigerians only hear the voices of few governors about the plight of their citizens with respect to scandalous shortages of basic products like kerosene. NGF has not commented on mass leakages of public funds through self enrichment in the national assembly (now subject of EFCC trials). The N680 billion allegedly on fuel subsidies is certainly nothing compared to N1.3 trillion spent on few political office holders as ‘remuneration’. What is the position of the governors on these mass leakages of public funds by political office holders? It is sad that the governors have become hyper active in an attempt to undermine the implementation of minimum wage. Governors must stop giving excuses and simply put necessary measures in place to implement the Minimum wage Act in their respective states to avoid unnecessary industrial mass crisis. It was triple problems of dictatorship, mass unemployment and poor wages that led to mass revolts in Tunisia and Egypt recently. Happily Nigeria practices democracy (with all the challenges associated with recent elections). We also have a vibrant system of collective bargaining (as a member of ILO) which has produced the recent minimum wage. The unilateral posturing of the Governors through unhelpful and unthinking policy dictatorship amounts to arrogance and intensity that may push Nigeria into North African option we have long not found attractive.

The governors should be on duty and device creative means of growing the economy of their respective states rather than relying on monthly oil revenue that is clearly unsustainable regardless of arbitrarily determination of the sharing formula. They must also engage their respective workforce to respect labour market laws such as minimum wage instead of pushing for ill thought out polices from Abuja. Nigeria needs production (not sharing) formulae the bedrock of which is well paid motivated working men and women with good minimum pay. We remind President Goodluck Jonathan that there is a subsisting agreement between Labour and Federal government on petroleum pricing after mass strikes of 2007 under the leadership of late President Yar Adua. Governors dare not stampede President Goodluck to undermine subsisting national agreement and consensus. Petroleum products are indispensable products to Nigeria’s industrial recovery and cannot be left to ambiguous policy of deregulation.  The sector calls for bold and engaging good governance and not unhelpful policy dogma of deregulation. Nigeria is still rich when compared to other non-oil producing countries in the continent. Many non-oil producing nations parade functioning refineries, public owned as well as privately owned, why not the 6th producer of the product in the world?

Issa Aremu mni.
GENERAL SECRETARY NUTGTWN/VICE PRESIDENT NLC