AS staff of Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS) Ilorin received their first ever end-of-year welfare bonus (20 per cent of 13th month) in decades, the Director General of the Institute, Comrade Issa Aremu, has received accolades for his commitment to staff welfare and the renewal of the Institute in line with the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari for national development.
At the opening ceremony of the first-ever Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Harmattan School, at the Institute in Ilorin, Kwara State last Monday, December 6, 2021, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, the Chairman of the Governing Council of MINILS, Chief Frank Kokori, and the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, in unison hailed Comrade Aremu for what they described as his “transformative impact” on MINILS which was hitherto moribund before his appointment in May this year.
In his opening address, Mr Keyamo commended the unprecedented collaboration between the NLC and MINILS which made it possible for the week long NLC 17th Harmattan industrial relations school in Ilorin under the theme: “Covid-19: The Future of Work.”
As many as 150 participants from 56 affiliate unions of the NLC and fraternal unions from Kenya, the Gambia, Serra Leone and Ghana attended the school which has sub-themes of “Leadership”, “Organising” and “Gender”.
“This is the kind of projects that the government, President Buhari and myself want to see occurring; where government agencies and institutions and other social partners work together to achieve our common goals and aspirations of equity and fair development for all”, Mr Keyamo said.
While appreciating that the Harmattan School would “be practical and skills-oriented”, Mr Keyamo praised the leadership of the NLC and the entire management and staff of MINILS under Comrade Issa Aremu for what he called “wonderful partnership initiative” with “significant contributions to national development”.
“This is the kind of partnership between government and non-state actors that the current government is pushing and nurturing across all sectors of the country’s economy. It is our believe that diverse actors working together with unity of purpose is the only way by which we can ensure that we recover back better, fast and strong as well as place our nations on the part of constructive purposeful development”.
While underscoring the importance of workers’ education for workplace dispute resolutions and productivity improvement, Keyamo urged MINILS and NLC to seek further areas of cooperation in the areas of training and research collaboration and also engage with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment (FMLE) in furtherance of industrial harmony.
The high points of 2021 the Harmattan school were the commissioning of new 40 rooms/clinic building and Entrepreneurship and Development building by the Kwara State governor, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq and the Minister of State for Labour and productivity, respectively.
Earlier in his welcome address, Comrade Aremu observed that despite the challenges of macro-economic instability, NLC has risen in defence of workers’ rights through social dialogue. He called on what he called “agonising elite” to emulate organised labour and “stop agonising but to rise to organise for positive changes” within the framework of democratic dispensation.
The Director General said upon his appointment, he inherited “a moribund Institute, with low and even no staff morale, absenteeism, delayed payments of staff entitlements, decayed infrastructure and low patronage by trade unionists, employers and government officials alike”.
Aremu said in spite of this, “in less than 6 months, the “Institute is back alive” with a first ever 5- year Strategic Development Plan (2022-2025), new curriculum for workers’ education to minimize conflicts at work, massive renovation of hostels, renewed partnership with stakeholders, improved access roads, improved offices, commissioning of new projects, and improved staff welfare.
Comrade Aremu singled out the two ministers of Labour and Employment, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Frederick Ebert Foundation (FEF) for the support he got in repositioning MINILS for national development.
MINILS was commissioned in 1983 by the then government of President Shehu Shagari with the mandate to organise regular capacity building and training of workers, employers and government officials on critical labour and industrial relations issues for sustainable national development.
Since its establishment, MINILS has trained critical mass of workers and employers from both public and private sectors on thematic subjects of labour administration, disputes management and resolutions, industrial relations, employment regulations, social dialogue, negotiations and social security.
Comrade Aremu, a former General Secretary of Nigeria’s Textile Union, former Vice President of NLC and Vice President of Industriall Global Union, is he first trade unionist appointed to head MINILS.
