Last week, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, caught the attention of Nigerians when he called for a 50 per cent job cut in the nation's workforce. UMAR BAYO ABDULWAHAB examines the various issues arising from the recommendation

Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, at a seminar last Tuesday in Warri, Delta state capital, said the country was wasting 70 per cent of its resources on salaries and emoluments and therefore, advocated a cut in the expenditure of executive and legislative arms of government for more cash to be available for development.

Sanusi added that the number of lawmakers should be reduced and local government's scrapped. This, according to reports credited to him, is necessary to sustain the nation's ailing economy.

Expectedly, the reports generated controversies and bashing from the organized labour, the House of Representatives and some Nigerians who also called for the immediate removal of the apex banks' helmsman.

While the war of words lasted, the Federal Government in a swift reaction said it won't sack workers but rather create more jobs through the multi-sector of the economy.

Though, the CBN had come out to defend its governor saying, he was quoted out of context, the statement generated interesting debates at the Eightht National Labour Relations Summit and Award ceremony organised by the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), in Ilorin last week among other issues.

NLC, TUC on Sanusi's sack call

Though, the summit was expected to focus on the theme, ‘‘social policy, labour relations and the transformation agenda: Extending Social Protection in Nigeria,'' it turned out to be an avenue to reply and react to the burning issues generated by the recommendation of the CBN governor with both the Presidents of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Abdulwaheed Omar and Trade Union Congress (TUC), Peter Esele condemning Sanusi's sack call.

They warned that with 50 per cent unacceptable open unemployment and official 25 per cent unemployment rate in the country, revolution and youth revolt are imminent.

Labour as an asset

The NLC President in his argument said, that Nigeria can move forward if government revives real sector of the economy, manufacturing, transportation, textile, food drinks and beverages and other key sectors of the economy.

He said government should enhance labour force to achieve more for the country with the intervention fund like it was done in the financial sector to revive it dying industries saying' "what is good for the financial sector is also good for labour.''

The labour leader asked rhetorically if the N3trillion bailout fund which the CBN, under Sanusi made available to ten distressed banks recently can still be available for capital projects again.

Speaking further, Omar who was represented by his Vice, Comrade Issa Aremu, argued that instead of retrench workers, the nation rather need to employ more workers.

"It is a lazy economy to see labour as liability, labour is an asset and not a cause item," the minister said.

According to him, for the country to be among the 20 economies of the world, it would even require to strengthen her work force by recruiting more workers.

President, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Peter Esele had told workers to be on the alert for a show down with the government as "the CBN governor may be speaking for somebody" except if the Minister of Labour says something contrary.

Drawing an inference from the theme, "extending social protection in Nigeria," Esele wondered how job cuts could guarantee social protection for workers. He said the nation should lay emphaise on human resources development rather than capital resources.

He said, the Congress "has the capacity and ability to deal decisively with the situation" even as he said the labour will not hesitates to "make life difficult for whoever that is trying to make life difficult for workers."

Minimum wage

And on a rare occasion, the NLC praised the transformation agenda of the Goodluck Jonathan's administration which it said has signed into law a new minimum wage of N18,000 for workers even as it noted that facilities put in place at MINILS, venue of the summit can compete with any other one abroad.

It however warned that it would "rise against state governors that are yet to implement the new minimum wage in their states."

Constitution review

On the ongoing review of the 1999 constitution, the union suggested that the labour should be on exclusive list of the nation's constitution, adding that labour should be protected like capital of the economy.

They labour's position was coming on the heels of insinuations that state governors were manipulating members of the National Assembly to remove labour from the exclusive list in the nation's constitution.

"Labour must be on the exclusive list in our constitution because labour remain the source of our creative wealth. It is in the best interest of the governors that we have a centralised labour that we can manage than to have a deregulated one," said NLC president.

Wogu as the mediator

But the federal government doused the tension generated by the comment of the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria CBN governor saying government would not sack workers but rather create more jobs.

Minister of Labour, Chukwuemeka Wogu, allayed the workers' fears while speaking at the summit.

"I speak authoritatively and I want to be quoted, nobody should be afraid, the government is desirous of creating more jobs. Both the TUC and the NLC should not be agitated on the issue because the federal government is committed to protecting and creating more jobs in the country", he said.

Wogu said a committee has been set up to create more jobs in multi-sectors of the nation, saying the committee would commence work next week.

Though, he said job creation is more of private sector activities, the minister said the government is creating enabling environment for private sector to thrive, adding that government owes the society the responsibility to do just that.

He also said that President Jonathan was committed to implementing job creation policy particularly in sectors like agriculture, construction, ICT, Tourism, power and recently its SURE –P programme among others.

While one would not want to support any call for a job caught in the country today or in the nearest future, the inability of some state to pay workers salaries in recent times is indeed worrisome. The case of months of industrial action embarked upon by the Plateau state workers over unpaid salaries is just one out of the many others that are suffering in silence.

I think it is high time, we began to ask more probing questions on how those at the helms of affairs at various level of governance manage our resources.