No N78 billion for ex-Airways workers, no new national carrier!

Last Monday, Nigeria, like other nations around the world rolled out drums to celebrate the annual International Workers’ Day with promises upon promises from the different cadres of government to make living conditions more seamless for the workers.

While the workers had used the occasion to protest the unfair treatment they have been subjected to by subsequent governments in view of the poor minimum wages they receive even in the face of harsh economy, the general hope is that things could only get better.

The workers in the country’s aviation sector led by the ever resilient aviation unions were not left out of the celebrations though with catalogue of complaints still about their not being adequately rewarded for the sensitive duties they render to the sector.

Obviously, each time this important event slated for May 1st of every year comes up, there is a particular group of workers who had at one time toiled and laboured for their fatherland for years but were unceremoniously discarded.

This has once again brought to the fore the case of the over 5,900 ex-workers of the former Nigerian Airways who 14 years after the country’s national carrier they worked for was unwisely shut down, are yet to be paid their final benefits.

Even God in His infinite mercies has magnanimously declared that ‘a worker deserves his wages,’ a declaration which has been grossly flouted in the country not only by the private sectors but even the government that should lead by example.

The greatest injustice was seen in the manner the then government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo fearfully paid off the workers of the defunct national carrier in Britain and America 25 years terminal benefits in line with the labour laws of the two countries while the same government disrespected its own by failing to pay the workers in Nigeria and other sister African countries even the lesser 15 years benefits.

Fourteen years after the liquidation of the airline, temporary respite came the way of the ex-workers when the late President Unaru Musa Yar’Adua facilitated the payment of five years out of the 15 years government agreed to pay them and since then, they have been left in the cold with over 700 dying without getting their benefits while hundreds are left to live miserable lives.

The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari through the sincere efforts of the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has done a lot to bring smiles back to the faces of the neglected former workers.

Expectedly, the debt of the former workers hanging on the neck of government as calculated by relevant government key players is put at N78 billion including the arrears of their pensions since the the first batch of N29.1 billion was paid five years ago.

The dangerous news making the rounds presently is that while the presidency has approved the payment of the N78 billion, there is a move by the Presidential Initiative On Continuous Audit (PICA) in the Ministry of Finance to slash the N78 billion entitlement to N43 billion over questionable excuses.

The argument being put up by PICA for wanting to reduce the benefits half way is ungodly and untenable for if the government had paid them off earlier the pension arrears would not have accumulated to what it is presently.

It will be better for the Ministry of Finance or whoever is responsible to prevail on PICA not to toy with the tiger’s tail as the ex-workers have suffered enough trauma, therefore, any attempt to deny them their benefits may not augur well for the sector and the country’s image at large.

PICA and the Ministry of Finance would save the country from an international embarrassment by urgently paying the N78 billion without any condition attached.