Governor Nasir El-Rufai said the agreement reached between some Kaduna State government officials and the members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) at the meeting brokered by Minister of Labour and Productivity is not binding on the state.
He disclosed this in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Mr Muyiwa Adekeye on Monday.
Recalling that its representatives made it clear at the May 20, 2021 conciliation meeting that whatever they signed required the approval of the Kaduna State Executive Council, the statement stated that the government has since informed the Labour Minister that the State Executive Council is unable to approve the MoU.
“It is trite that an MoU is not a legally-binding document. The content of the MoU shows that there is no congruence between the progressive aspirations of the Kaduna State Government and the misguided sense of entitlement of the NLC which does not even believe in equality amongst its own members,” the statement said.
The statement said that the dominant theme in the KDSG statement at the conciliation meeting was the state government’s rejection of the criminal actions that defined NLC’s actions. “It was notable that the NLC delegation was eager for the discourse not to dwell on their violations of laws prohibiting the disruption of essential services and their recourse to coercion and restraints to the freedom of citizens. But these are matters that cannot be ignored or swept under the carpet, since unlawful actions that have come to be accepted as part and parcel of strike action remain unlawful.”
The governor, however, said he has provided a comprehensive briefing to President Muhammadu Buhari on the rightsizing policy of the Kaduna State Government and the steps taken so far to implement it.
The governor said that Kaduna State will seek accountability for the NLC’s actions in the state by setting up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the events of May 2021, explaining that it is hiring over 10,000 staff because rightsizing obliges the government to continuously recruit teachers, doctors, nurses and other qualified staff to provide vital services.
He statement said the governor assured President Buhari that “KDSG is determined not to allow a repeat of the pains, economic losses and the restraints of freedom that NLC inflicted on the people of Kaduna State.”
Alluding to the NLC’s renewed threat of strike action, the statement said that the NLC has demonstrated that it does not even believe in equality among its own members, by describing the transfer of one KDSG employee to a place where other civil servants are serving, as victimisation.
“KDSG employees are serving with dedication in Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area, amidst all the challenges. Yet, NLC describes the transfer of one KDSG employee to Birnin-Gwari LGA as victimisation, as if other staff who have been loyally serving in the same area are lesser humans or permanent victims. KDSG rejects this unfair denigration of the very people that the transferred employee claims to lead.”
