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Workers of the Nigerian
Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) on Wednesday in Lagos said the best
way to find a resolution to the non-payment of their 30 months arrears
of salaries is to cut off all forms of communications come October 1.

Kenndy Ndubuisi, the Lagos co-ordinator
of Concerned NITEL workers, one of the groups fighting for the
aggrieved workers, said the might be forced to shut down the nation’s
international telecommunications gateway, Sat-3.

“It is now 30 months we have not been
paid salary,” he said. “We got the information from the Bureau of
Public Enterprises (BPE) that they have handed recommendation of the
committee on our salary arrears to the presidency. It is more than a
month they submitted that recommendation to the presidency ,which noted
that workers should be paid their entitlement and be sent off, but yet
we have not heard from government.

“The SAT-3 is a NITEL installation; we
have seen that the federal government only listens to militancy and
violence. That is why we are going to shut down SAT-3 that would make
them pay us. As we saw, the workers of Power Holding Company of Nigeria
(PHCN) did that just recently. They shut down their stations for just
two days and the government hurried to paid them.” Mr Ndubuisi said the
shutdown of SAT-3 would attract government’s attention and force it to
pay their arrears immediately.

“We would shut down all forms of
communication signals in the country. Some people do not even know that
NITEL is working; all form of communications signals pass through
NITEL, like internet connection, mobile phones, radio signals, etc,” he
said “We have told the government earlier that if nothing is done, we
would make sure that this country does not celebrate October 1. So, all
form of communication would be shut, the operations of NITEL reside in
Lagos. While those in Abuja are trying to talk to government to be
reasonable but if that fail the workers in Lagos would shut down SAT-3.
The government has never been reasonable because they have being owing
us for 30 months arrears and government is paying salaries to the
militants around the country.”

Waiting for Information

The spokesperson of
NITEL, Sule Shehu however explained that the workers are waiting to
hear from the Minister of Labour, in Abuja in order to resolve the
settlement of their arrears.

“Some workers are
in a meeting with Minister of Labour, Chukwuemeka Wogu. They started
the meeting around 4pm while the rest of us are waiting outside the
office to hear the outcome of the meeting,” he said.

“Last week, a group
of NITEL workers came and invaded the BPE in Abuja and they spoke with
the BPE and threatened that if by this week the government does not
make a categorical statement about our condition, they are going to
disrupt the Independence anniversary.

“The workers have sacked their union leaders, so the minister is
meeting with the Concern NITEL Staff Union.” In 2008, leading to the
mismanagement of NITEL, the federal government revoked the sale of
NITEL to Transcorp and set up the national carrier for privatization
process. Government has said to settle all outstanding arrears of the
workers from the proceeds of the sale of NITEL.