NLC greatest threat to Nigeria – El-rufai

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Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-rufai, has described the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) as the greatest threat to Nigeria.

This, he said when he met with the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) on Wednesday in a meeting that helped to wade into the strike that almost crippled the state in the last few days.

NLC had embarked on a 5-day warning strike in protest of the workers sacked by the Kaduna State Government, a development that almost escalated into a crisis in the state, in addition to the fight between the governor and the labour leaders.

While the strike has been called off on Wednesday, El-rufai insists on not going back on the sack of the workers in the state.

However, he lamented that he did not get the required support from his colleagues.

He stated, “I am a governor. I am one of you. The least I expect from the Nigeria Governors Faorum is unequivocal and unqualified support. I didn’t see that in that statement.

“I am being very blunt. I could pretend and be political and just smile and say it was alright but it is not. But I am used to fighting my own battles.”

This is after NGF, in a statement by its Chairman, Dr Kayode Fayemi, on Monday had urged the NLC to exercise restraint in its engagement with the Kaduna State Government.

It stated, “The NGF calls for cautious introspection on the part of Labour as no meaningful progress of any kind has ever been achieved in an atmosphere of conflict and chaos.”

Besides criticising the NGF, the Kaduna State governor described labour unions as the greatest threat to Nigeria. He stated that governors must come together to tackle their menace to prevent the country from degenerating further.

The governor added that, “We will fight this. We are breaking them and they will leave town ashamed. I will not give them one inch because this is not about unionism.

“If it is about rights of workers, Kaduna is not the only state that has retrenched workers. Kaduna is not a state owing salaries. Kaduna is not a state failing to pay minimum wage. Kaduna is not a state owing years of pension arrears. Why didn’t they go there? Kaduna was targeted for political reasons; and they are being financed by certain political interests. But we will fight them, we will defeat them but as the Governor of Bayelsa said, and since he has brought that subject, I have a responsibility to put it through, unless we collectively address this monster, it will consume all of us.

“After this, they (NLC) will never come back to Kaduna. They will never come back, you will see. They will go to other states. It is up to the forum to decide on what to do, but we are here, we are ready, we will end this by the grace of God.

“I would like to inform the forum that one of our colleagues, a state governor actually gave the NLC money to come to Kaduna to do this because people think everything is politics. This is not politics. This is a monster that will consume all of us. It will not consume Kaduna I’m confident of that.”

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