Governor, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state, yesterday attacked trade unions in Nigeria, accusing them of always pursuing their narrow minded, selfish interest without thinking of the good of the country.
Governor Nasir who was speaking at the ‘Governance Matters’
roundtable organised by Development Alternative Incorporation, DAI in
Abuja, accused trade unions of always dragging their state chapters into
the unnecessary fights with the Federal government.
Governor El-Rufai berated Nigerian doctors for going on strike
despite taking an oath to always save lives. He said it is only in
Nigeria that doctors go on strike.
The governor in his speech advocated for a cut down in the National minimum wage.
“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. The mistake we made as a country was placing
trade unions in the Exclusive Legislative List.
If the Academic Staff
Union of Universities, ASUU, has an issue with the Federal Government,
then the state universities will go on strike too. In Kaduna, I warned
the Kaduna State University, that if ‘you ever go on strike again
because of somebody else, I will fire all of you.
I think we need to do
some things. First, take labour matters out of the Exclusive List
because many of us are victims of agreements reached with ASUU by the
Federal Government. The states were never part of such agreements.
Secondly, is the issue of minimum wage. Except we set a very low
minimum wage, there will continue to be issues especially with states
that do not have wide tax net. You cannot set the same minimum wage for
Lagos and Jigawa.
Also, we must apply the labour laws strictly. No work,
no pay, because there has to be a trade dispute before anything strike.
That is what the law says. I think the health unions have been the most
irresponsible because only an irresponsible doctor will abandon his
patients even after swearing to the Hippocratic Oath. I think Nigerian
doctors are the only ones on the planet that go on strike.
We have submitted our report on true federalism and it will be taken
to the National Assembly. We hope the National Assembly will stop
dealing with inanities and deal with the real issues,” he said