…accuses him of absenteeism, says he lives in US, flies into Nigeria to attend meetings, rushes back immediately after
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, has raised the alarm over alleged disappearance of the 90 CNG buses handed over to the Trade Union Congress by the Federal Government as palliative to address the problem of high transportation costs in the country.
Ajaero also accused the TUC President, Festus Usifo of being an absentee union leader.
The NLC president alleged that his TUC counterpart lives permanently in the United States and flies into Nigeria to attend meetings and hurries back immediately afterwards.
Ajaero stated these while speaking on a Channels Television programme.
According to him, Usifo should be made to account for the whereabouts of the 90 CNG buses handed to the TUC by the Federal Government.
He said while the NLC’s 90 CNG buses were on the roads plying various routes across the country, the whereabouts of those of the TUC remained unknown as they could not be seen anywhere conveying passengers.
Ajaero said, “They (FG) gave NLC 90 buses, the TUC 90 buses to ease the transportation problem in the country, gave money to fuel them for about three months each. Ask him(Usifo) the route, the CNG buses, the 90 buses for TUC, the routes they’re plying. Where they? Or have they developed wings because we moved round from the NLC to the six geo-political zones and inaugurated the buses to ease the transportation problem, which was the intention of those 90 buses. If the 90 buses of the NLC are on the road and those of TUC, to a large extent, since we’re talking of the CNG buses and we were given money to buy fuel since CNG infrastructure is not readily available, I want to know whether their own (TUC) is plying from Oshodi to Mile 2 or wherever so that we know how-far and how patriotic we’ve been to the cause of the Nigerian people. Ask him.
“And I want the Nigerian nation to ask him and I also want to equally add this; that he’s an absentee president of TUC. He doesn’t live in Nigeria. And he’s watching us, tell him. Tell him I said that he comes in from the US to attend meetings and rush back. He serves on the board of PENCOM. Apart from one virtual appearance, he’s not been attending meetings.”
The NLC president and his TUC counterpart have been at loggerheads over negotiations for the review of the N70,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
Their disagreement over the matter has however continued to degenerate.
