27 April 2001

Victimisation of Trade Unionists in Nigeria:

"The Campaign for Independent (Trade) Unionism (CIU) appeals to workers and trade unions all over the world to put pressure on the Lagos State Government of Nigeria to reinstate Ayodele Akele and other trade unionists back to their jobs immediately."

solidarität mit nigerianischen gewerkschafterInnen -
SCHICKT PROTESTBRIEFE!

liebe freundInnen,

trotz ende des militärregimes in nigeria hat sich an den angriffen auf gewerkschafterInnen leider nichts geändert. in den letzten tage ist es im zuge von massenentlassungen (8000) im öffentlichen dienst in lagos auch zu entlassungen von "lästigen" gewerkschafterInnen gekommen. einer von ihnen, ayodele akele, wurde auch inhaftiert. (weitere infos in englisch siehe unten) wir ersuchen euch um euere solidarität.

attached ist ein muster-protest-brief. bitte schickt diesen oder einen ähnlichen in eurem namen bzw. im namen eurer organisation an folgende adressen. eine kopie bzw. eine meldung dass ihr ein protestschreiben geschickt habt bitte auch an uns, damit wir die kollegInnen in nigeria informieren können.

für informationen und rückfragen:
01-524 63 10
0699-11 73 13 26

für spenden:
psk 8812.733 (verwendungszweck: nigeria)

vielen dank im voraus
sonja grusch

protestbriefe an:

  • Botschaft der Bundesrepublik Nigeria
    Rennweg 25
    1030 Wien
  • The Executive Governor,
    Lagos State of Nigeria,
    Alausa, Ikeja,
    Lagos.
  • The General Manager,
    LSDPC,
    Ilupeju, Lagos.
    e-mail: lsdpc@lsdpc.com
  • The Speaker,
    Lagos State House of Assembly,
    Alausa, Ikeja.
    Lagos.

Kopien an:

Bitte ebenfalls Kopien an die folgenden Nigerianischen Zeitungen und Magazine:

An Appeal for international Solidarity and Support

Reinstate Ayodele Akele And Other Victimised Trade Unionists

The government of Lagos State, Nigeria, has just sacked dozens of trade union activists in the state public sector from their jobs.

Top on the list of these victimised union leaders is Ayodele Akele. He is the chairman of the Lagos State branch of Amalgamated Union of Civil Service Technical, Public Corporations and Recreational Service Employees (AUPCTRE). He is also the chairman of the Council of Industrial Unions (COIU), the federation of trade unions in the state public sector.

Akele is a quantity surveyor by profession and works at the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC), an agency owned by the state government. Akele's appointment has been terminated alongside 159 other LSDPC workers including the chairman of the local LSDPC branch of AUPCTRE.

These trade unionists are part of 8,000 public servants who have just been retrenched from their jobs by the state government as a result of a public spending cuts programme embarked upon by the government.

But the retrenchment exercise has been particularly aimed at principled trade union activists who have been in opposition to the programmes of poor wages and job cuts of the state government. Since the present state government took office in May, 1999, this is the second mass retrenchment exercise. In the first mass purge that took place in August of 1999, ten thousand (10,000) workers were sacked.

To be specific, these trade union activists are being persecuted for their campaign against the first retrenchment exercise and also for their leading role in a struggle last year for a monthly minimum wage of N7,500 (£50) for the state public sector workers. After a breakdown of negotiations between the unions and the state government, the COIU, under the leadership of Akele, organised a state general strike, which lasted for 22 days between June and July, 2000.

The sacking of these trade unionists violated the relevant labour laws and regulations in Nigeria. None of the sacked trade unionists for instance has attained the legal maximum retirement age of 60 years or 35 years of service. Neither have they ever been issued any query or warning before in their workplaces. Significantly also, the state government deliberately did not negotiate with the trade unions as required by the law on redundancy which makes it mandatory for employers to negotiate the necessity and extent of any redundancy with the trade unions.

This is second time Akele would be unjustly and arbitrarily sacked from his job by the state government. In October, 1998, he was dismissed by the then state military ruler in the course of agitation for a new minimum wage by the state public sector workers. He was reinstated in July, 1999 as a result of a massive campaign mounted within Nigeria and internationally.

Though Nigeria returned to civil rule in May, 1999 after 15 years of military dictatorship, workers, students, trade union and youth activists fighting to protect jobs, wages, education and social services under attack from the IMF policies being implemented by the Nigeria's new civilian rulers still face persecution and repression. For instance, during the minimum wage strike in Lagos State last year, precisely on 5th July, 2000, a worker, Adigun Popoola, was killed when a contingent of armed police deployed by the state government attacked a peaceful procession of the striking workers.

The reasons stated above explain why international solidarity and support for the victimised trade unionists is very vital.

What to do

The Campaign for Independent (Trade) Unionism (CIU) appeals to workers and trade unions all over the world to put pressure on the Lagos State Government of Nigeria to reinstate Ayodele Akele and other trade unionists back to their jobs immediately.

  1. Send letters of protest calling for immediate and unconditional reinstatement of Ayodele Akele and all other sacked unionists and for an end to the victimisation of trade union activists.

    The protest letters should be sent to:
    (draft letter of protest see below)

  2. Raise financial support for the campaign and to meet the cost of possible legal action. Send donations to Campaign for Independent (Trade) Unionism (CIU) in London CIU, c/o YRE, PO Box 858, London E11 1YG.

PLEASE ACT QUICKLY

We insist that there is no Basis for another retrenchmentin LSDPC our Problem is Looting and Mismanagement

  • No To Another Job Massacre
  • It Is An Act Of Victimisation of Union Activists
  • Stop Mismanagement, Wastage And Looting
  • John Bede Anthonio must go!

Reliable information reaching the LSDPC branch of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), has confirmed that the corporation is about to embark on another retrenchment exercise in which hundreds of workers will be sacked. Most of the workers slated for retrenchment have not attained the statutory retirement age of 60 years or maximum length of service of 35 years. Nether do they have bad record of service.

This retrenchment exercise will be the second since Architect John Bede Anthonio became LSDPC General Manager in June, 1999 and since Governor Tinubu took over the affairs of Lagos State in May, 1999. The first exercise in August 1999, saw the sacking of more than 700 LSDPC workers out of 1,300 staff. The number of workers sacked in LSDPC was more than the total number of workers sacked in all the parastatals of Lagos State including the Water Corporation.

The exercise is to be carried out under the guise of having received instructions from the state government to do so. It is to be presented as the LSDPC version of the latest round of retrenchment in the state civil service in which over 8,000 civil servants have been sacked, in most cases unjustly, by the Tinubu government.

Union Activists are the Targets

But a management source has reliably informed the union that union activists are the primary targets of this exercise. This is contrary to the false impression often given by the LSDPC management that it has to retrench because the corporation is over-staffed. To show the bias and vindictive nature of the exercise, among those pencilled down for retrenchment is Comrade Ayodele Akele, the chairman of the Lagos State council of our union and the leader of Lagos State public servants. The chairman of the workers' union AUPCTRE, LSDPC branch, Comrade Abdulkabir Ibraheem, is also one of the activists who the management planned to sack.

But while workers who have served LSDPC creditably over the years are to be sacked, the management has continued to recruit new staff. Today, 19th April, 2001, 12 quantity surveyors are to be interviewed with the target of recruiting 6. At the same time, 3 quantity surveyors, including Comrade Ayodele Akele, have been pencilled down for retrenchment for no just cause. This is a clear proof that the retrenchment exercise has nothing to do with over-staff. On the contrary, it is a deliberate plan to deprive workers of their means of livelihood and to victimise union activists who have been at the forefront of fighting for workers' rights and against mismanagement and corruption in LSDPC.

Violation of Management - Union Agreement

Due to arbitrary redeployment of some workers to Ministry of Transportation as a prelude to an impending retrenchment in January, 2001, the union declared a trade dispute against the management. As a result of this, the union and management signed memorandum of agreement on 21st February to the effect that:

  • There will be no victimisation of union activists and union executives.
  • Letters of deployment to Lagos State Ministry of Transportation be withdrawn.
  • Management allayed the fears of retrenchment of workers of LSDPC, as management has no plan to retrench.

This agreement has been violently violated by LSDPC management by the present planned unjust mass sacking and victimisation. If LSDPC management cannot respect a simple agreement, then, this is an invitation to anarchy.

Furthermore, on 27th March, 2001, the management held a meeting with the union and it reaffirmed that it was not going to embark on any retrenchment and if it is inevitable, they are going to call the union before it is carried out and that the criteria to be used is 25 years upward. Not only this, in the PM Newspaper of March 21, 2001, Mr. Olusola Martins (PRO of LSDPC) spoke on behalf of management that management is committed to its pledge to the labour union of the corporation that no worker will be retrenched.

Tragically also, the exercise is to be carried out at a time when Lagos state government has ordered that the retrenchment exercise be stopped and a committee set up to review the exercise. The worst part of it is that the so-called review committee has stopped receiving letters of appeal from retrenched staff.

Violation of Labour Decree of 1974

The planned retrenchment exercise also violates Labour Decree of 1974. This decree provides that in event of redundancy/retrenchment:

1(a) The employer shall inform the trade unions or workers representatives concerned of the reason for and the extent of the anticipated redundancy.
  (b) The principle of "last in, first out" shall be adopted in the discharge of particular category of workers affected.

This labour law has also been violently violated by LSDPC management as the union or workers representatives are not informed and the criteria remained unknown.

Purported Sacking of Comrade Ayodele Akele

It has also come as a rude shock to us the alleged inclusion of Comrade Ayodele Akele's name in the list of workers being laid off. Comrade Akele is the chairman of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), Lagos State Council and the chairman, Council of Industrial Unions (COIU) in Lagos State public service.

The Tinubu government claims it is only flushing out unproductive workers. But the sacking of Akele has shown that this is a ruse. Akele is known to all and sundry, LSDPC workers and contractors alike, as a very diligent and efficient worker and one of the best (if not the best) site coordinators who deserved to be rewarded positively. He coordinates Odonla Housing Scheme, the youngest of all sites where the most progress and advance has been achieved. In less than 2 months of active work at Odonla, Akele has excelled and beaten the records of other sites to the extent that contractors have gone to the stage of 1st floor slab equalising the state of work of sites that have been on for 9 months before the commencement of his own site.

Akele's record of work and professional competence is not a secret. We call on members of the public to go to Odonla to interview staff and contractors over Akele's dedication, diligence and commitment to duty and, above all, his uprightness. Akele, to the management's dismay has combined effectively and efficiently his work as a union leader and public servant to the admiration of all and sundry including management. As at the last management's visit to his Odonla site, even the General Manager was forced by what he saw on the ground to give Akele a pass mark openly, though reluctantly.

Sacking Akele therefore is an act of victimisation as a result of his trade union activities and in utter violation of labour laws and International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions, which prohibits such act. We firmly believe that his victimisation is as a result of his principled and uncompromising leadership role in fighting for the interests of not only LSDPC workers but the entire Lagos State public servants, particularly his role in the struggle for N7,500 minimum wage for Lagos State public servants. Akele has not committed any crime. He does not deserve to be sacked.

Mismanagement and Wastage, not over-staffing, are LSDPC's Problems

Rather than retrenchment of workers, the problems that should be addressed are the mismanagement and corruption that have become the norm in LSDPC under the present management. As a result of the mismanagement and wastage, LSDPC is now just a shadow of its old self. The place has been thoroughly mismanaged and the corporation once known for its viability is in absolute red and its properties mortgaged. For instance, the General Manager has travelled to abroad several times spending more than N30 million on these needless jamborees. This is aside intra-country travels.

Instead of Architect John Bede Anthonio to build houses, he is busy planting flowers in the state as if he was sent to LSDPC to plant flowers. Instead of delivery of houses as his main assignment, Architect John Bede Anthonio has been busy waging war of genocide against the staff he met in the corporation for no justifiable reason. He failed to allocate flats to staff who have spent donkey years whereas his stooges have had field days choosing as they like. A typical example is Mr Lawrence Aiyejuyomi (the police officer attached to the GM) who had been given two flats at Iba and Ojokoro housing estates.

Given the various acts of nepotism, retrenchment today, retrenchment tomorrow, mismanagement, maladministration, reckless and wasteful spendings, inability to deliver any housing estate for almost two years, incompetence, unwise demolition or selling off LSDPC properties (e.g. the mighty LSDPC store at Amuwo Odofin and LSDPC Horticultural garden), proposed demolition of Adeniran Ogunsanya shopping complex, mortgaging of LSDPC properties through questionable loans, lack of direction and neglect of staff welfare which have characterised the short tenure of Architect John Bede Anthonio, we are compelled to demand for his immediate resignation.

Demands

  • Immediate recall of all sacked staff is the only recipe for peace in LSDPC.
  • An end to retrenchment of LSDPC workers.
  • Join consultation and involvement of the union or workers representative as provided for in the labour laws to establish the need for retrenchment/redundancy, the extent and the criteria.
  • Upholding the spirit of agreement reached with the union on 21st February, 2001 against retrenchment/redundancy and other labour laws otherwise LSDPC workers will have no choice but to use all powers available to us to fight for our rights.
  • Immediate removal of John Bede Anthonio as the General Manager of LSDPC and probing of all his activities of looting, mismanagement, incompetence and total mortgage of LSDPC properties for questionable loans.
  • An end to elimination of staff by substitution with Bede's friends, cronies, families and church members (Winners Chapel).
  • An end to contract staff. Why do you sack staff under the guise of retrenchment for reason of over staffing and you engage contract staff to be later cleverly transferred as permanent staff or to contract out these jobs at higher uneconomical costs? It is therefore falsehood, insincerity and a clear indication that LSDPC is not over staffed.

Failure to redress this demands and injustice immediately, management should accept full responsibility for any industrial unrest in LSDPC or any further action to be taken by the union to redress this injustice. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Issued by the LSDPC branch of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE).
18th April, 2001

 

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST MOVEMENT
National Secretariat: 162, Ipaja Road, Agege, Lagos, Nigeria.
Tel: 234-01-4925671
E-mail: dsm@beta.linkserve.com

19th April, 2001

PRESS STATEMENT
Tinubu, Stop Mass Retrenchment and Victimisation of Union Activists

The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) condemns in very strong terms the ongoing mass retrenchment of workers in the Lagos state public service in which over 8,000 civil servants have been deprived of their jobs. We demand an immediate end to this senseless job massacre by the Alliance for Democracy (AD) government in Lagos State and the reinstatement of all the sacked workers.

We particularly condemn the usage of the retrenchment exercise to illegally and unjustly get rid of principled and militant trade union activists from the state public service. A careful analysis of the list of retrenched workers shows that there is a deliberate plan by the Governor Tinubu administration to witch-hunt trade union activists who played leading role in the struggle of Lagos state civil servants for N7,500 minimum wage across the board last year which culminated in a 22-day strike by the state civil servants between June and July, 2001.

Among those who have been witch-hunted in this manner are comrade Ayodele Akele, the chairman of the Council of Industrial Unions (COIU) in the state public service, Abdulkabir Ibrahim, the chairman of Lagos State Development and Property Corporation of Amalgamated Union, (AUPCTRE), M.O. Oloye (Lagos state auditor of AUPCTRE) and five members of the branch executive of Lagos State Electricity Board branch of AUPCTRE.

This is a contravention of the agreement reached by the government and the COIU in February this year which forbids the victimisation of any worker as a result of his or her role in the minimum wage struggle.

The DSM notes the worrisome systematic trend of victimisation of principled workers' leaders by governments in AD-controlled states. A few months ago, comrade Femi Aborishade, the National General Secretary of National Conscience Party (NCP) was sacked from his position as a lecturer from The Polytechnic, Ibadan, by the Governor Lam Adesina government in Oyo State while Dr. Oyebade Olowogboyega, (chairman, Osun state NULGE) equally had his appointment terminated by the AD government of Governor Bisi Akande in Osun state.

This actions not only show the anti-working class and anti-poor character of AD as a party, it has further exposed the sheer hypocrisy of its leaders most of whom regard themselves and want to be counted by the working masses as "progressives" and "democrats". On the contrary, the retrenchment exercise and witch-hunting of trade union activists carried out by AD governments is a proof that when it comes to defending the interests of the capitalist system and their own wealth, privileges and power, the so-called AD leaders could be as vicious and heartless as the leaders of the other two registered pro-rich capitalist parties - the PDP and APP.

The DSM equally condemns the arbitrariness and lawlessness that have characterised the retrenchment exercise. Most of the sacked workers had neither reached the statutory retirement age of 60 years nor attained the maximum 35 years of length of service. Most of the sackings, especially in the cases of the trade union activists, also cannot stand the test of declining productivity or failing health, the two other criteria which the Lagos State government claimed was used for the exercise. The fact that the exercise cannot stand the test of laid-down rules must explain the reason why the Lagos State Government did not deem it necessary to negotiate with the civil service unions and the COIU as required by the country's labour law before embarking on this massive retrenchment exercise.

Mass Retrenchment not the Solution to Economic Crisis

To us in the DSM, apart from the witch-hunting of union activists, the other aim of this retrenchment exercise is cost-cutting in government social spendings in line with the neo-liberal capitalist policies pursued by various governments in Nigeria since the early 1980s. Incapable of tackling the decline in productive sectors of the economy, successive governments under pressure from the international capitalist creditors led by the IMF and World Bank have adopted the anti-poor approach of massive reduction in government spendings on wages, education, health, housing and other vital social services.

This is the essence of neo-liberal policies such as privatisation of public enterprises, commercialisation of social services, devaluation of naira, increase in the prices of petroleum products, retrenchment of workers, etc. These policies are presented as the pre-conditions for being in the good book of Nigeria's international creditors and attracting so-called foreign investments which is seen as the only solution to the country's economic woes.

However, after two decades of the implementation of these policies not only does the economy remains in a state of comatose, with low productive capacity and high level of unemployment, the living standards of the masses have nose-dived while the gap between the rich and the poor has never been wider.

As the experience of public corporations such as Nigeria Railways and Nigeria Airways which have carried out massive purge of workers in the past have shown, the policy of retrenchment of workers while ignoring the fundamental causes of the economic crisis will not solve the problem of the economy either in Lagos State or nationally. On the contrary, it will worsen the problem of poor purchasing power, increase unemployment level and exacerbate social problems like armed robbery, drug trafficking, prostitution, corruption and so on. But it is these same anti-poor and counter-productive policies which is also being implemented by the governments controlled by the self-styled "progressive party"- AD. This is the second retrenchment exercise to be carried out by the Tinubu administration. In the first exercise which took place in August, 1999, almost 10,000 workers lost their jobs.

We in the DSM consider gainful employment as a very basic right. We would also want to assert that Nigeria, endowed as it is with abundant natural resources, has the capacity to guarantee full employment and decent life to everybody. But this potential will never be realised so long as the neo-colonial capitalist system which creates wealth, opulence and privileges for a tiny minority while condemning the vast majority of workers, peasants, petty traders, artisans and the youth to endless poverty and misery, prevails.

Based on the above analysis, the DSM calls on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) leadership both in Lagos State and at the national level to take up the fight against the on-going retrenchment in the Lagos State civil service and the victimisation of union activists. The NLC must mobilise workers to compel the Lagos State Government to halt this job massacre and the witch-hunting of labour leaders. The NLC must demand that all the affected workers and trade unionists must be recalled.

Finally, the present vicious attack on workers and trade unionists in Lagos State shows once again the need for the working class to building an alternative political platform opposed to the present pro-rich capitalist parties. Therefore, the NLC, and labour and youth activists must fight for a genuine multi-party democracy with the right of every individual and group to organise political parties without registration by the government and the right to stand for elections as independent candidates. Above all, an independent mass working people's political party with a socialist programme must be built as a matter of urgency to provide an alternative to the existing capitalist parties.

SEGUN SANGO General Secretary, Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM)

 

Saturday, April 21, 2001
NLC want Akele reinstated

WORRIED by the sack of the chairman of the Council of Industrial Unions (COIU), Mr. Ayodele Akele, by the Lagos State government, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has appealed to Governor Bola Tinubu to reinstate him and other dismissed workers.

The NLC said it is shocked that Tinubu's administration still continued the exercise in spite of its promise to stop it. According to NLC's Assistant General Secretary, Mr. Chris Uyot, "during the struggle, the state government was high-handed in its approach and one of the protesting workers, Mr. Adigun Popoola, ended up dead on account of the brutality of the policemen deployed to disperse the protesters."

He added: "The sack shows the crude resolve of the administration to pursue its earlier threat to retrench workers, if the unions insist on the minimum wage."

"The sack is in spite of a pending agreement between the unions and the state government that the administration would not sack any union leader nor retrench workers."

The congress finds the reasons adduced by the Lagos State government for this exercise unacceptable and it is clear to the congress that the move was made partly to purge the public service of trade union leaders who insisted on a fair deal for the workers," he stressed.

 

the letters should be sent to ...

Letter of protest

It has been brought to our attention that the state government of Lagos State retrenched 8.000 public servants from their jobs. Part of this attack on the public sector and the people working in this sector and depending on their wages for their lives and their families is the repression against political activists.

Amongst those sacked is Ayodele Akele, chairman of the Lagos State branch of Amalgamated Union of Civil Service Technical, Public Corporations and Recreational Service Employees (AUPCTRE) and chairman of the Council of Industrial Unions (COIU), the federation of trade unions in the state public sector. He and other trade union activists are being persecuted for their campaign against the first retrenchment exercise and also for their leading role in a struggle last year for a monthly minimum wage of N7,500 for the state public sector workers.

The sacking of these trade unionists violated the relevant labor laws and regulations in Nigeria. The last time Ayodele Akele was sacked by the officials was in 1999 by the then state military rulers because of his political activity.

We want to protest against the sacking of the 8.000 workers, especially the trade union activists and Ayodele Akele.

We demand

  • the immediate recall of all sacked staff
  • an end to retrenchment of LSDPC-workers
  • the reinstatement of Ayodele Akele and all other trade union activists
  • an end of repression against trade union activists

 
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