Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, having apparently stirred Labour’s nest, following his ‘technical suspension’ of about 4,000 workers from the state’s parastatals, departments and agencies, is now making strident appeals to President Muhammadu Buhari to ignore the petition written to him (Buhari) by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) urging the President to call Okorocha to order over his recent suspension of staff of some parastatals and agencies.
Governor Okorocha said he read with deep concern media reports credited to the NLC national body on the above matter.
In the NLC petition, signed by the national president, Ayuba Wabba, Labour said 3,000 Imo workers were suspended; and has threatened to mobilize all workers in Nigeria against Governor Okorocha and Imo State government, among other issues raised in the petition.
Meanwhile, the governor has accused the NLC of failing to objectively look at the issues or circumstances warranting the workers’ suspension.
“On the part of the Imo State government, we would be austere with the truth, if we pretend not to know about the concern of the NLC leadership over the suspended staff of the affected Parastatals and Agencies. But our only worry is that in showing solidarity or concern over the fate of the suspended workers, they have failed to objectively look at the issues or circumstances warranting their suspension,” said Sam Onwuemeodo, chief press secretary to Governor Okorocha.
According to the governor, the parastatals and agencies were established for results. But the affected ones in the state have been unproductive since 1999.
He challenged the NLC to contradict him on the claim of unproductivity by the parastatals and agencies.
“A place like Water Board for instance, was established to give Imo people water. Since 1999, they have failed to do that. Yet, they get their subventions. We stand to be contradicted,” the governor stated.
He said he decided to take ‘political will’ by wielding the big stick, since subsequent administrations in the state obviously had experienced the same problem with the parastatals, but could not to exercise the political will needed to take the appropriate action.
According to Okorocha, he has only exercised the ‘political will’ to fix the parastatals and agencies; adding that he had handed them over to new management committees. And that the management committees needed time to carry out due diligence on the agencies.
“If the truth is to be told, there is no way the new managements put in place to reposition these Parastatals and Agencies could function to achieve the expected goal with the old staff intact. Hence, the suspension issue. It was not done out of hatred or malice or sentiment. It was done in the overall interest of Imo people including the suspended staff,” Governor Okorocha stressed.
He said the suspension was only meant to allow the new managements consolidate for good results; adding that, “allowing the old staff to continue with the new managements would have meant putting new wine into an old bottle, and it was not reasonable or advisable to do that.”
He however pleaded with NLC leadership to see reasons with him in the interest of more than five million Imo people; stating that the number of workers involved in the suspension was not up to 3,000, but the Labour union in the state created the figure. He challenged them to publish the list of the workers affected.
He then appealed to President Buhari “as a man who believes in hard-work and its attendant results, not to heed to the call of the NLC on the Governor concerning the suspended workers in Imo.”
He equally appealed to the NLC led by Wabba, to do favour to more than five million Imo people by supporting the action taken by the government to restore life to the affected parastatals and agencies.
He also asked the state NLC to participate in the committee set up review the individual cases of those affected by the suspension.
