The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has vowed to resist attempt by any state governor to tamper with the N17 trillion pension fund. It made it clear that the leadership of the Congress will mobilise Nigerian workers nationwide to protest any move by the governors to borrow from the money, say it is the retirement benefit of workers.

The President of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba, made these known today, December 10 at the 47th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) in Abuja, against the background of the decision of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), endorsing two proposals to borrow a total of N17 trillion from two sources for infrastructural development.

The governors took the decision after receiving a briefing from the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who is the Chairman of the National Economic Council Ad Hoc Committee on Leveraging Portion of Accumulated Pension Funds for Investment in the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.

El-Rufai briefed the forum on a proposed National Infrastructure Investment Fund, saying a total sum of N2tn at nine per cent interest could be accessed through the NSIA.

But Wabba warned that the pension fund which was the savings of workers ahead of their retirement from active service must not be tampered with.

The NLC President said the state governors had no authority over the money which he said was largely made up of contributory funds from federal and private-sector workers.

He lamented that with over 18 state governments’ still delaying implementation of the new national minimum wage for workers; it was unheard of that same governments would want to borrow the pension money, a contributory fund of workers.

“Pension money is not for borrowing, pension money is in the retirement savings of workers it cannot be borrowed. It’s like money in your savings account that nobody can borrow the money.

“You must go through the bank and in this case, you must go through the PFAs and their guidelines; even the guidelines they want to play down but to the glory of God, the board of PENCOM commission has been constituted

“I stand here to represent all of you, we are not going to agree; less than 5% of the states are keying into the contributory pension yet they want to borrow the money. The bulk of the money is from federal government workers and private-sector workers so how do you want to borrow from where you have not sown?

“It’s not free money and let me sound a bit of warning, any day that we hear the pension fund, our money has been borrowed, I will declare a protest and everybody is going to be on the streets to protect our hard-earned money.

“The money belongs to workers, we contribute that money so that when we retire we can have something for retirement so they have no say whatsoever, both the principal and the capital belongs to us.

“Let me sound a warning to assure all of you workers from across the length and breadth of this country, to say that our money will be safe. We will do everything possible to ensure that nobody comes to dip his hands into the money. We are not going to allow our standards to be lowered than what obtains in other climes.”

On his part, the National President of MHWUN, Comrade Biobelemoye Josiah, condemned the federal government’s involvement in scuttling strike actions through the use of some Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), stressing that workers have legal rights to embark on industrial actions to drive home their demands.

“In a plethora of cases, the courts have affirmed the right of the workers to embark on strike; that strike is a legitimate weapon available to the Trade Union to ventilate their grievances especially when the provision is S.41 of the Trade Dispute Act bordering on a number of days has been compiled with.

“I would therefore appeal to the Federal Government to enrich our industrial relations practice through the interplay of the relationship between the management (Government) and the workers (Trade Unions) rather than scuttling the relationship through a 3rd party interloper represented by the NGOs.”

The Navy Headquarters in Abuja has declared 43 personnel wanted and requested anyone with useful information that could lead to their arrest to report to the nearest Naval facility or police station.

A circular containing the names and photographs of the deserters also mandated all naval personnel with information on the whereabouts of the missing personnel to arrest them “or be dealt with as an accomplice.”

Although no reason was given for the disappearance of the officers, it was gathered that most of the officers, who were serving on Naval Vessels on foreign missions absconded when their ships berthed in Europe.

The circular read: “Above are the Nigerian Navy personnel who have deserted from Service recently.

“Accordingly, you are pleased requested to assist in providing useful information that will lead to their arrest or you may apprehend any one of them when seen and handover to the nearest Nigerian Navy base or security station.”

The memo also provided contact telephone numbers, where information relating to the movement of the wanted officers could be relayed.

The Senate has expressed worry over the loss of over $9 Billion estimated revenue loss as a result of illegal mining and smuggling of gold from Nigeria and wanted President Muhammadu Buhari to probe it.

The Senate, today, December, also mandated the Committee on Solid Minerals, Mines, Steel Development and Metallurgy to investigate all such illegal mining and revenue leakages associated with the illegal mining activities.

The resolutions were made sequel to a motion sponsored by former Abia state governor and Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.

The Senator, representing Abia North, in his motion said: “Nigeria lost close to $54billion from 2012-2018 due to illegal smuggling of gold. The country is said to be losing about $9billion yearly to illegal mining and gold exportation, a huge amount of money unaccounted for through under the radar sales of the expensive commodity.”

The Abia North senator maintained that “the activities of unlicensed miners were becoming prevalent within the industry and the incessant smuggling of solid minerals out of the country by middlemen and smugglers, is leading to loss of government revenue.”

According to him, gold mining operations in the country is capable of providing over 250, 000 jobs and over $500million annually in royalties and taxes to the federal government and as mineral resources.

He further submitted that the mining sector, if well harnessed could boost the nation foreign exchange earnings.

“Given our current estimated gold reserves of over 200million ounces, most of which have not been exploited, developing sustainable programmes that will catalyse increased investment in the extraction and refining of gold sourced from mines in Nigeria, is indeed vital.”

The former Abia state expressed reservations over the illegal mining operations in certain states in the country which he noted was a breach of the Constitution which placed mining in the exclusive legislative list.

In his contribution, Senator representing Kogi west, Smart Adeyemi also stressed the need for government to seal up illegal mining activities since it also undermines national security.

The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, has stopped President Muhammadu Buhari from appearing before the joint session of the National Assembly to speak on the state of the security in the country.

In a statement today, December 9, titled: ‘Buhari’s Summon: NASS Operates Outside Constitutional Bounds,’ Malami insisted that the National Assembly has no power to invite President Buhari., adding that the NASS lacks the constitutional powers to invite the President as he is not answerable to them.

In the statement, Malami said: “the management and control of the security sector is exclusively vested in the President by Section 218 (1) of the Constitution as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces including the power to determine the operational use of the Armed Forces.

“An invitation that seeks to put the operational use of the Armed Forces to a public interrogation is indeed taking the constitutional rights of law-making beyond bounds.

“As the Commander-in-Chief, the President has exclusivity on security and has confidentiality over security. These powers and rights, he does not share.

“So, by summoning the President on national security operational matters, the House of Representative operated outside constitutional bounds.

“The President’s exclusivity of constitutional confidentiality investiture within the context of the constitution remains sacrosanct.”

Malami insisted that though the President could freely address the National Assembly if, and anytime he wants, the House has no constitutional power to summon him to do so.

“Mr. President has enjoyed Constitutional privileges attached to the office of the President including exclusivity and confidentiality investiture in security operational matters, which remains sacrosanct.

“The National Assembly has no constitutional power to envisage or contemplate a situation where the President would be summoned on the operational use of the Armed Forces.

“The right of the President to engage the National Assembly and appear before it is inherently discretionary in the President and not at the behest of the National Assembly.

“President Muhammadu Buhari has recorded tremendous success in containing the hitherto incessant bombing, colossal killings, wanton destruction of lives and property that bedeviled the country before attaining the helm of affairs of the country in 2015.

“The confidentiality of strategies employed by the President as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not open for public exposure in view of security implications in probable undermining of the war against terror.

“The fact that President Muhammadu Buhari was instrumental to the reclaiming of over 14 local governments previously controlled by the Boko Haram in North East is an open secret; the strategies for such achievement are not open for public expose.”

The Speaker of the House of Representatives had, last week, invited Buhari to appear before a joint session of the National Assembly over the rising insecurity in the country following the killing of rice farmers in Zabarmari community in Jere local government area of Borno State on Saturday, November 28.

Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Buhari, Garba Shehu, had confirmed that the President would honour the invitation of the National Assembly on Thursday, December 10, to address the joint session.