Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai has lashed out at organised labour in the country, saying it has destroyed the nation more than its contribution to it.
Nasir-El-Rufai Speaking, yesterday in Abuja at a ‘Governance Matters’ round table organised by Development Alternative Incorporation, DAI, the governor said the excesses of the trade unions must be curtailed. “Trade Unions have never served the country well.
“They have been selfish and everything is about their narrow interests. In general, in Nigeria, trade unions have been a danger to our progress and I think they should be curtailed,” he said.
Read his full statement here
The governor also accused some past governors of Yobe and Borno states of being responsible for the emergence of the Boko Haram sect due to their negligence of the education sector.
“We tended to have ignored this problem (of out of school children) but this problem, when ignored, gave us Boko Haram. If you look at education statistics in Yobe and Borno in 2003 and 2004, you will reasonably predict that Boko Haram would happen within a decade. So, this is a huge problem,” he said.
Organised labour, yesterday, said the governor was an embarrassment to public office in Nigeria, describing him as anti-people and a chameleon. General Secretary of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, said Congress was not surprised by what were credited to the governor because he had been an anti-labour person with penchant for breaking the labour laws of the land.
He said: “The country has a better moral standing than the likes of el-Rufai who has demonstrated that he is not fit to hold public office or political position. He is an embarrassment to public office in Nigeria. He speaks out of both sides of the mouth. He always changes position for his personal aggrandizement. This is the same el-Rufai who once gate-crashed into one of NLC’s protests and pleaded to have NLC apron to be part of the protest.”
Similarly, President of United Labour Congress of Nigeria, ULC, Joe Ajaero, said: “He is anti-progress, anti-people and does not see any good in something progressive. If el-Rufai praises anybody, know that such a person is about to die.
He prefers money to human beings as he has demonstrated in Kaduna. We are not surprised at his views. We want to know if he is speaking for the APC government or for himself. His comments are challenges to labour movement.
“If he is speaking about the civil servants in the state, he can say whatever he likes. But he cannot generalize, if he does, we will take him on. We will make him to eat his words. People like him have their places in history. His will not be different. He is who is he is. He could not have said anything different. He has a history of inflicting pains on the masses. He did so when he was the FCT minister and he is presently exhibiting same in Kaduna as governor.”
On his part, Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole said the federal health institutions are over-staffed while there is a dearth of health officers at the primary healthcare level.
“Let me state that Nigeria has a large stock of human resources, the problem is that of distribution. There is a wide gap between the North and South. Over 60 per cent of our human resources are concentrated in Lagos and Abuja and the rest have little to cope with.
“There is a state in this country with 23 doctors and 24 hospitals. That means we do not even have one doctor for one hospital. I was at Ahmadu Bello Teaching Hospital and they said they needed more staff and I said no, that we are over-staffed at the federal level.
Over 80 per cent of our resources is dedicated to personnel cost and we cannot really deliver on our mandate while the large chunk of allocation is for personnel and then you have a situation where the states cannot pay salaries,” he said.