NSITF Board: I won’t work with negative mindset —NLC representative

DESPITE the bickering and crisis generated by the inauguration of the board of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), especially the eventual replacement of Fank Kokori by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, a representative of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on the board, Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel, said he would not go and work on the board with a negative mind set.

Contrary to the perceived notion that Labour representatives on the board would be antagonistic of the new Chairman of the board, Prince Austin Enajemo-Isire, who was preferred by the minister over Kokori, Comd. Khaleel said he would rather go there with a clean heart.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, Khaleel, who is the National President of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and the Treasurer of the NLC stated that what he sees while performing his duties as a member will determine his response to issues.

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The NULGE President said he was privileged to be appointed as a member of the board to represent the NLC, adding however that he would protect the reputation and integrity of the congress; and his own personal integrity by ensuring that the board succeeds in its functions.

“I will go there with a clean heart and what I see while performing my duties as a member will determine my response and action to issues.

“Sincerely speaking, having being privileged to be representative of labour on that board, I will not go into the board with a negative mind set. I will go there with a clean heart and what I see while performing my duties as a member will determine my response and actions.

“The controversy surrounding the issue of chairmanship of that board has been put to rest especially by the clarification given by the presidency. But if I am to credit the entire crisis to a particular body, I will accuse the presidency of being behind the confusion and the entire crisis we saw; because there is no ambiguity in the Act that established the NSITF board on who has the authority to appoint the chairman of the board.

“The president of Nigeria is empowered by the law to appoint whoever he so wish as the chairman of the board. In the first place, it was the presidency that through public pronouncement announced the name of Comrade Kokori as the chairman the board of NSITF. There was no counter announcement from the presidency, no written information, no communication. We in the NLC observed that the Minister of Labour was struggling to bring somebody on board other than the one earlier pronounced by the president.

“So if at the beginning of the change; the presidency deemed it fit to come out boldly that it is amending the appointment of Frank Kokori, nobody will raise any issue because the powers to appoint still remains with the president. But when the president made announcement and approval was given and these names were mentioned in the media and there wasn’t any counter information coming from the same quarter, certainly there will be confusion.

“Unfortunately, for the presidency to keep mute all the while till a day to the inauguration means that the presidency is not fair to us, and the entire Nigerian people. And that is not the best way to handle governance.”