Telecom workers call for implementation of Executive Order on local contents

THE Private Telecommunication and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PTECSSAN) on Monday called for the implementation of the President’s Executive Order on local contents.

Mr Oladapo Moses, the President of PTECSSAN, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, alleging increase in the number of foreigners working in Nigeria

Moses noted that four months after the executive order was signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, there had been no blueprint for its implementation.

NAN recalls that President Buhari signed the executive order on Feb. 2 to improve local contents in science, engineering and technology components.

The order, among others, prohibits the Ministry of Interior from giving visas to foreign workers whose skills are readily available in Nigeria.

Moses claimed that since the order was signed, the number of expatriates whose expertise was available in the country had continued to increase.

He said that if the trend was allowed to continue, the plans of the current administration to create 740,000 in the country would fail.

”The rate at which Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) grant expatriate quotas to foreign workers is worrisome.

”This is a direct abuse of the laws. Imagine an expatriate working in Nigeria as a Security Manager, Fleet Manager, Account Manager and Human Resource Manager. This is sad,” he said.

According to him, telecommunication companies keep Nigerian workers as casual or outsource staff while their foreign counterparts, some of who are less qualified, are treated with full benefits.

”This is against the laws as no Nigerian worker understudies the expatriates; rather the reverse is the case.

”We have companies with 30 per cent locals and 70 per cent foreigners as staff,” the union leader said.

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Moses said it was wrong to believe that Nigerians in the telecommunication sector “still needed to learn forever, after over a decade of learning and teaching the supposed teachers.”

He said that some multi-nationals hid under redundancy policy to terminate the employment of the indigenous workers only to bring in foreigners to take over their positions.

”The result is that Nigerians lose their jobs to foreign workers.

”We urge the MDA’s to immediately work with all labour unions in the information sector to nip this development in the bud,” he said.

The union leader lamented that the executive order has not been implemented and advised Nigerian telecommunication workers to wake up and be united to be able to tackle the challenge.