The Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai has lashed out at the organized labour unions in the country, saying they have destroyed the nation more than they have contributed to it.
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The Governor said this, yesterday, in Abuja at a ‘Governance Matters’ roundtable. According to him, “Trade Unions have never served the country well. They have been selfish and everything is about their narrow interests.
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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.
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If ASUU has an issue with the FG, then the state universities will go on strike too. In Kaduna, I warned the 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.
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First, take labour matters out of the Exclusive List because many of us are victims of agreements reached with ASUU by the FG. The states were never part of such agreements.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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 they will stop dealing with inanities and deal with the real issues.”