NLC Opposes Substitution Of Kokori As NSITF Board’s Chairman

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has opposed the substitution of Mr Frank Kokori as new Chairman for the Board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
MrAyubaWabba, NLC President said this at the Ministry of Labour and Employment where the board was to have been inaugurated yesterday in Abuja.
He alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed Frank Kokori as the Chairman of Board of the NSITF but that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige changed the appointment.
Ayuba Wabba, NLC President “If Kokori has been declared by renowned world leaders as prisoner of conscious and has been appointment by Mr President, the minister had no right to manipulate the process by changing it.
“Kokori has not been informed that there is a new Chairman of the board. The minister had earlier informed him that Mr President has appointed him as the chairman of board and he has undergone all necessary security screening.
“So, close to three years now, they have refused to inaugurate the board due to one reason or the other and we can see today that they do not want somebody that is transparent to manage workers money just for no reasons just to delay the process.
“We have waited patiently for three and half years and the minister has been the sole administrator with a lot of theories he has raised.
“The reasons were given that the approval was made by Acting President then, and he needed to revalidate and which we did.
“Second reason he gave was that there had been corruption in the place and he needed to clean the place up and we said yes.
“The third reason was that after cleaning the place, he needed to implement the report and that he said he needed two weeks,” he said.
Wabba said that it was wrong for the minister to run the NSITF board as the sole administrator as it was the money contributed by employers for the social security of cover for their employees.
He noted that the NLC and the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) have two members each on the board and the ministry has one.
“Enough of one person administrator to manage our money and our resources because public office is public trust, let us not allow a situation where people will continue to feast on our resource and claimed that they are actually fighting corruption.
“Corruption means that we can also interrogate the sole administrator that has been managing our money; that is why we are here to protest the injustice where people have been feasting on our money for three years and they do not want the board to be inaugurated.
“The law said that NLC shall be consulted before the inauguration of the board but they never did that. We shall also be calling for the audit of the minister as the sole administrator for the past three years.