Nwadiala Chukwuemeka Ngozichineke Wogu, PhD was Nigeria’s Minister of Labour & Productivity from 2010 to 2014. He had earlier served as a Local government Chairman in Abia state as well as member Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). In this interview with Obinna Nwachukwu he spoke on a number of national issues.
During your tenure as the Minister of labor and productivity there was relative stability in government-labour relations. How did you manage the situation then?
Well, I won’t say that during my period as minister of labor and productivity we had no rift with labour. Issues of labour agitation had been with us for long. For instance, during the tenure of Hassan Sumonu as NLC president in 1981, there was agitation for minimum wage which eventually ended in strike and from then up till now, there have been series of labor agitations and the difference is that during the military era there was suppression of laboor activities, the labor unions were outlawed and banned but with the advent of the democratic rule in 1999, labuor and their leaders regained their voice and agitation began. During my own time, we had crises but we found a way of being proactive and engaging them. Engagement has been the mantra. I didn’t want to talk in detail how the labour union was handled then but what I want to say is that the current labuor administration headed by Chris Ngige is doing well and I wish them well but we won’t mind coming to offer advice whenever our services are needed.
What did you do differently?
I was more proactive and I always assured labour that I didn’t come with an adversary position but a win-win situation. I was always engaging them. Chris Ngige is also engaging them but I don’t know if times have changed and if the current reality is different from what we faced.
Are you not disturbed that we have more labour agitations now than before?
I have not taken statistics on the number of strikes this administration have had but I once read in the Newspaper the number of weeks ASUU had embarked on strike during former presidents Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathon, and even now Buhari administrations. The common denominator was that they always stayed long. The peculiar thing for me was that I had the support of my then boss President Jonathan alongside my proactive measures and that made my work easier. I equally cultivated some level of trust and confidence with the labour unions and they believed me most times when I gave any promise or excuse. It was usually a win -win situation because they believed in me as much as I believed in them. Being minister of labour and productivity is particularly peculiar in Nigeria because you can’t discuss labuor in isolation of other factors. Labour includes security and security comes in different ramifications, You also cannot discuss the economy without involving labour because the workforce determines the economic power of the state. Lack of infrastructure and good working environment affects the workforce and for them to vent their anger, they go on strike. So that we are having more strikes now might be because of these and other factors. My prayers are with the current leaders and the minister and I wish them well.
The current minimum wage of N30,000 came into effect about two years ago, as at that time inflation was about 7% now inflation is about 18% and this has warranted calls from some labour leaders for a review of the minimum wage. Presently, about 9 state governments are yet to implement the N30, 000 minimum wage. What is your take on this?
I presided over the salary increase of the civil service at the federal level. I equally supervised as minister of labour and productivity for the former increment of N18,000 so you see in determining salary fixing, the indices are revenue profile, affordability and availability. Once these are on ground, and you do the objective and subjective analysis, and look at the cost of living, then the issue of inflation comes in, then you can determine the level of increment because you will not increase salary in such a way that you can’t afford. As at the time we fixed it at N18,000 the revenue profile of this country wasn’t bad because of the cost of oil and at that time it was sustainable and affordable. When we finished the report, we agreed with all the members of the committee that N18,000 is sustainable but some state governments in their own memorandum wrote figures that were not sustainable. Some wrote N40,000, N50,000, N60, 000 etc. Currently, the panel headed by Dr Ama Pepple came up with the recommendation of N30,000 . The issue is that even when it was N18,000 which was affordable most state governments reneged and didn’t pay. I remember a case when Plateau state governor couldn’t pay the wage and his people embarked on a strike for about 10 months, I invited them to Abuja and resolved the case within a space of 4 hours and the strike was called off. Globally, most economies are not doing well due to covid-19 pandemic. The agitation of Nigeria workers over improved pay might be that when they convert the current salary into Dollar, it’s really not much but I believe it is not the quantum of salary that matters but the value. Increment of minimum wage wouldn’t fix the problem, what needs to be fixed is the economy. How do we improve the economy? We need economic diversification; we need to ensure that money that goes into the consolidated federal government account goes to the appropriate places they ought to go, we need to tackle corruption, we need to restore public institutions such as schools and hospitals in such a way that both the rich and poor can benefit. It is not about how much that is being paid but the commitment of our leaders to improving the institutions. Most people patronise the private schools now even though their professionalism can’t be guaranteed but most of the public servants can’t afford it unless they do something else. Farming would have been a good alternative but most people are not encouraged to farm. Appendix surgery alone cost N100,000 and more. How many Nigerians can afford such amount? If there were effective public hospitals it should cost far less. We need to urgently fix public schools, universities, hospitals and not subsidy in fuel. Also we need to cut off the middle men and start refining our petroleum products here. This will save a lot of money that can be used in other critical sectors of the economy. Appropriate evaluation of the Naira needs to be done too. Civil servants are groaning under the impact of inflation and inflation is caused by economic management and nobody can be blamed because we went into recession and then the pandemic came. The parameters that will determine our economy is economic diversification including refining of gas and other mineral resources. I believe Government should have no business with the local refineries but allow the private sector to handle them. Everybody is waiting for Dangote and BUA refineries to come up but even when they start full operation, they still can’t meet our domestic requirements of fuel products so we need other refineries to come up and fill up the gap. As a nation, if we continue this way we will not go far without diversifying the economy as other nations did.
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Have you had the opportunity of selling these ideas to the federal government for implementation, because fuel subsidy and other costs are daily depleting our national revenue.
I am willing to continue to serve the country but it was easier for me to advance this economic theory of mine while I was in service but now, I might do it at the party level as a strong member of the All Progressive Congress, I don’t have a public office to advance it but what I will do is to articulate it and send to the national party chairman and it can be taken up from there.
It is alleged that the reason you joined the All Progressive Congress was because you failed to get the Abia state PDP governorship ticket in 2014. Or were you running away from prosecution?
I didn’t join APC because I lost the primary election. The reason for my movement was based on principles due to irreconcilable differences between me and head of the party in Abia state. Everybody would want to say that politics is local, at some point in my political history between the time I resigned and the time we finished the primary election and I joined APC, I was virtually relegated to the background by people who wanted to terminate my political growth and the people existed in the top hierarchy of the party and most of us are dissatisfied with the process of electing the incumbent governor through a flawed primary election which included not given all contestants level playing field and the obvious manifestation of the then incumbent governor of his love for a particular candidate.
So I left because the principle that led to the formation of the PDP was negated and I said this because the actors at the time we left were not there when we formed PDP. I can count on my finger the people who were prominent in the formation of PDP in 1998. Former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu led the new era group. I came from the G34/PNF group led by former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme. So when at a point of the primary election, we found people who were not there when we formed the party claiming superiority position. I remained in PDP while they joined Dr Uzor Kalu to Progressive Peoples Party (PPA) and many other issues that took place during the period. At the end of the day I had to quit from a party that couldn’t keep or honour promises and I couldn’t cope working with such people. So I left based on the fact that I am progressive in my politics and since I joined APC I have not regretted my action. Any day I am dissatisfied with the way things are going based on principle, I would leave. So I didn’t join APC because I was running from prosecution or wanting a cover, but out of principle. I didn’t even join to lobby for position because I would have been given one.
As at the time you joined, APC was not a frontrunner in Igbo land like APGA, and PPA. Why didn’t you move to these other parties?
I don’t go with the crowd, I go with personal convictions, political principles and values. I moved because I was convinced I could advance my political ideas and serve the country better by being there. I moved even before the mass movement. APC is popular in the south east. In my state, almost everybody that matters is in APC because we need a change
But the state governor is in PDP, so are you saying those in the State government don’t matter?
We need a change in Abia state government and anybody who has joined APC joined because they want to see a change in Abia state. A change of leadership from PDP. We have spent 22 years experimenting with PDP and most people think the results are not commensurate with the service expectation. If you talk with most members of APC who were in PDP, APGA, PPA, the major reason will be that they wanted to change things in Abia state and this thing did not start today, it has a long history. They want an end to mal-administration.
What would you say is the major cause of the insecurity in Nigeria especially in the south east?
Everybody woke up to the new security challenges especially targeted at security agencies and public assets, but I am glad that the government has come out with security architecture to help curb the rising insecurity situation in the south east. I would equally urge south easterners to assist the governments of the south east to tackle the insecurity. Indeed, nobody in any part of the country is happy or comfortable with the insecurity so my take is that all hands should be on deck.
