Obviously, the outgoing Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu could best be described as a lucky man. Serving under a labour-friendly President who gives him all supports needed to satisfy the very vibrant, ever volatile and demanding, but very reasonable labour movement in Nigeria, added significantly to his success in the Ministry. Perhaps, the minister recognised this and as he always acknowledge the support of President Goodluck Jonathan, who has, in all sincerity, uplifted labour movement in Nigeria.The labour ministry has always been a hot place for any politician to pray to be posted, and when this happens, they seldomly enjoy their stay. Besides the fact that it is not a choice ministry, any minister in the ministry is always in the eye of the storm, with one threat of strike after the other and one strike action following the other. What makes it more difficult is that the ministry is the rallying point of all otherMinistries, agencies and parastatals of government in time of labour crisis, and have to be called upon to settle crisis.Invariably, the case of Wogu was more pathetic as he was named and sworn in as the Minister of Labour the very day the largest network of civil servants were to commence strike action throughout the federation under the National Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, comprising all the trade unions in the civil service.The minister described this as a baptism of fire and rather than being happy for being appointed a minister like his other colleagues, the situation gave him a warning that the place he was heading to might not be a rosy one. On the other hand, it gave him the fore-knowledge of the kind of responsibilities to expect and how to tackle them.Interestingly, the day I assume office, I was welcomed with a threat by a particular union to go on strike; in fact, the workers had commenced the strike action. It was indeed my baptism as minister for labour and productivity, the minister said on his first day in office.The long road to his achievement luckily started on that note, from his first day in office. The Unions, led by the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), were protesting the huge gap in salary disparity among the cadres in the civil service, especially from the Permanent Secretary to the Directors and down the line. Their grouse in this respect was justified because while the Permanent Secretaries collected about N1.4 million monthly, the Directors, who are next in line collected only N140, 000, which made Permanent Secretary earn ten times more than the directors, their immediate junior on the cadre.Chief Wogu quickly swung into action and invited the leadership of the unions to negotiation, based on the International Labour Organisation Conventions and the extant labour law of the country. The minister who was sworn in on April 7, 2010 said: We went into dialogue and the strike was called off and they gave a window period of about 30 days. We continued the negotiation so as to meet some of their demands. All the same, it was a very interesting period for me.The period had tasked my patience, tasked my ability to negotiate and even brought out some innate skills that I did not know I had before coming to the ministry. Eventually, the issue was resolved to the satisfaction of the workers and the strike was permanently called off. The negotiation led to the bridging of the gap, and the least paid in the Federal Civil Service increased to N17,000.President of the ASCSN, Comrade Olakunle Olaitan, described Chief Wogu as an achiever in the ministry. To him, the unions had been on the issue for a very long time and had pursued it over the years without success, until the coming of Chief Wogu who negotiated with the unions and got the president to agree to their demands. Thus the minister within his one month in office ensured the restoration of pay relativity in the salary of federal civil servant.Also, the Assistant Director (Press) in the ministry, Prince Samuel Olowookere, said the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Wogu, has without doubt carved a niche for himself in the nations labour sector through his unprecedented achievements within the short period of his appointment as minister by President Goodluck Jonathan.Prince Olowookere said the minister was able to avert the strike action that could have brought the nations economy to its kneel due to his preparedness and knowledge of the Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution.Besides, Chief Wogu averted many threats of industrial unrest. Notable among them were the planned nationwide strike that was to be embarked upon by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) over the implementation of Justice Uwais committee report on electoral system.The amiable and vibrant young minister has achieved unequal industry peace and harmony during his tenure as he was able to nip in the bud all manners of strikes and threats of strike to have characterised Nigerias world of work for a very long time.Attributable to Chief Wogu as a minister of labour in the last one year are: The restoration of pay relativity in the salary of Federal Civil Servant; Presentation, passage and subsequent signing into law by President Goodluck Jonathan the Employees Compensation Bill; Inauguration of the National Labour Advisory Council; Submission of the Labour Standard Bills 2008, Collective Labour Relation (Special Provision) Bill, Occupational Safety and Health Commission of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill in ensuring that the welfare of workers is well- catered for.Others are the sponsorship and subsequent passage of the Local Content Bill by the National Assembly, implementation of which is capable of generating over four million jobs; inauguration of committee on Database for Unemployed Nigerian Youth with the aim of having an accurate statistics of jobless youths for proper employment policies and planning, and establishment of a National Electronic Labour Exchange (NELEX), an electronic platform that enable job seekers and employers of labour to meet online.
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