SAN FRANCISCO, June 11, (THEWILL) – Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has faulted the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)’s action of reporting the country to the Committee on the Application of Standard of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) saying it was done in bad faith and against national interest.
THEWILL recalls that NLC had written to the committee reporting both Kaduna and Kogi state governments and asking the ILO to send a high-powered delegation to Nigeria to investigate infringements of the right of workers by the states.
The report by the NLC against the two states was one of the issues discussed by the Committee on Application of Standard at the just-concluded 107th session of the ILO and the decision of the committee is expected to be ready in November.
However, the minister, in an interview in Geneva, Switzerland, said the retrenchment of unqualified teachers in Kaduna State, which the NLC stated in its petition, was being tackled at home and needed no mention at the international labour forum.
“We don’t need to wash our dirty linen in the public. My ministry summoned both the Kaduna State Government and the Nigerian Union of Teachers and they presented their cases,” he said.
“We know the truth and don’t need to bring such to the ILO. Some of the people disengaged by the Kaduna State Government from the records tendered to us are not qualified teachers.
“They don’t have the prerequisite certificate and competence. They got smuggled into the system, but we don’t need to come here tell the world that Nigerians get jobs with fake certificates. We don’t need to engage in such de-marketing of the nation.”
Ngige added that based on agreement with the Kaduna State Government, about ten thousand out of the number that failed the qualification test have re-applied, and the Kaduna State has re-absolved some of them.
