Nigeria is a funny country where things works abnormally particularly in the public service and by extension the organised private sector.
This was coming from the unresolved imbroglio between the staffers of NSITF, an agency under Labour ministry which Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige is the substantive Minister over the refusal to adjust upward the demands and promises made by both the Management and the Ministry to adjust salaries upward inline with the service rules.
Twice, workers at NSITF have shut down offices across the country including the headquarters protesting for the whole day, over the non refusal by the management and ministry headed by Chief Chris Ngige, rather the Minister preferred to pressure the NSITF Management to enable him employ more kinsmen, friends and well wishers into the wee hours of his leadership after many controversial recruitments without recourse to due process.
Often times , the Minister had resolved or worsened labour related issues in Nigeria in the last eight years life span and his stint in the Ministry, except his personal interest had overridden some official norms to the disenchantment of many Nigerians .
The most recent one in the public discourse was his intervention in the CBN , NLC ultimatum of strike that was supposed to hold from Wednesday 29th March, 2022 but was suspended after due and tripartite consultation between CBN, Labour Ministry and NLC.
The decision was laudable and had improved/exposed the Godwin Emefiele failed naira redesign and aftermath sufferings Nigerians had been subjected to in the last few months.
The unavailability of the newly redesigned new naira notes after about three months of the commencement of the program and the recirculation of old notes had demonstrated alot of disappointment on the part of our public officers.
The cash crunch linked to the last political activities and transition from one administration to the other, could not stop the political class from carrying out their usual rituals , as money exchanged hands for political reasons.
The rush to the Labour Ministry by the CBN governor showed the connivance of public officers to deliberately subject ordinary Nigerians to untold hardships in recent times, that had led to series of deaths and other emergencies.
The new approach few days to the strike and the Minister of Labour and Employment approach and interventions that suddenly provided succour to Nigerians through the availability of cash in the Banks showed a deliberate moves on the part of public officers to muzzle Nigerians for mere opportunism.
This also brought us to the Minister of Labour and Employment adamance towards payment of staffers of the NSITF entitlements, but only interested in employing his cronies into the public service using the agency as available route was deliberate having cornered management of the agency into his till overtime.
The adoption of stick instead of carrot to the staffers of the agency through engagements of armed thugs to disperse workers from demanding their obligations was a sad moment in the public service.
For Ngige, it was not normal to ressolve labour related matters in NSITF, where he is the presiding Minister, but expedient to do so hazily in CBN. What an abnormally.
There is no doubt about it ,as in the last seven years, the Minister had ignored all round procedures and requirements in the public service to recruit his family members, kiths and kins, award contracts into the high brow NSITF.
The ugly development had led to erratic decisions and stagnated promotions in the once highly revered revenue yielding agency of the federal government.
The sad news had affected the revenue profile of the agency , that was a departure from the Ngige cabal contraption in the last seven years.
It is high time the new administration kick start the agency on a clean slate ,so as to return it to a profit oriented organisation in the next dispensation.
Aaron Nwuatem writes From Lagos.
