By Onwordi Onichabor
The Editorial Board and Management of Noble Landmark Africa Media, Publishers of Landmark Africa Magazine recently paid a courtesy visit to the National President and other members of the National Executive Committee of the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE) in it’s Head office in Lagos.
The Editor of the Magazine, Mr. Lanre Shodimu said that the purpose of the visit is to commend the National President and other distinguished members of the National Executive Committee for their commitments towards the realisation of the goals of the Union. The visit according to him is to present an Award of Excellence to the National President of the NUFBTE, Comrade Garba Ibrahim for his achievements in the last one year since assuming the leadership of the Union.
On his part, the National President of the Union, Comrade Garba Ibrahim warmly welcomed the management of the organization and said NUFBTE is a committed labour Union and it is at number 24 as one of affiliates of the NLC. The Chairman thereafter took turn to introduce members of the Executive Committee present to the Management of Landmark Africa Media.
The General Secretary of the Union, Comrade Mike Olanrewaju spoke extensively on the structure of the Union, welfare of members, achievements of the Executives Committees in the last one year and other ancillary matters. . According to him, NUFBTE is in 13 States spread accross the regions of the country. Speaking further he said, State Council is determined by the concentration of members and that is the reason why some State councils have 3 or 4 councils coming together to make a council. “In Lagos we have 2 Councils, namely Council 1 and 2, while others have about 4 Councils coming together”. He said.
He acknowledged the leadership of NUFBTE which consist of the National Executive Committee present.
Speaking further on the structure of the Union at State level, Comrade Mike said “we have State Executive Committee which determines how the affairs of the Union is conducted at their respective Council. At the National Executive Committee, we have two cadres which comprises of the elected member. Our National President is a staff of Northern Nigeria Flour Mill in Kano and at the same time he is the National Auditor of the Nigeria Labour Congress, which means he pilots the affairs of NUFBTE and also part of the central body that takes care of labour movement in Nigeria” .
“At the National level, we have appointed career officers so to say, just like in the military. We have the political cadre who are all members of the National Executive Committee”. He said.
The Union according to him is well structured in every areas of its operations and made up of different companies such as Nestle, Cardbury and Biscuit companies and many more, which are under the Foods and Confectioneries. It also include Breweries and Bottling Companies and all drinks that are in packs. Other members of the Union include the Tobacco Companies such as the International Tobacco Company, Ilorin, the British America Tobacco in Ibadan. Tobacco Companies according to him is part of the Union and that the Union will not be complete without mentioning them.
“We have different departments and departmental heads and the Union is gender sensitive and we have four members of the National Executive Committee, two of whom are present here. One of them is Comrade Adesola David, head Education and Gender”. He said.
“Since the National President came into office precisely February, 2023, which is about a year and 5 months ago, the Union has been applauded for its several feats and for being exemplary Unionism”. He said.
Speaking further he said “we now have informal sector like food sellers, sachet water sellers and other self employed as part of our Union. This is in accordance with the International Labour Organisation’s desire for every Unions to be properly Unionised inorder not to create encumbrance or bottle necks”.
“We have been able to reach out to the informal sector which will emerge as part of our Union he said. “We have also diversified our sources of income, which before now, our only source of income has been contributions from our members”. He noted that as a result of the global economic turbulence, the Union members have seriously been affected”. He said.
On income generation, Comrade Mike, said “our Union is the only Union in Subsharan Africa that has been able to establish Water Factory”.
“Although we are employees’ representatives, we are at the sametime employers of labour. We have reasonable number of people in our employment. We have an Hotel in Ojodu Berger, Lagos, and we also have another bigger one that is about to take off in the Apata area of Ibadan”. He said.
On the tenure of the Executive Committee, he said “the tenure of the Executive Committee is for 4 years, which is renewable for additional 4 years”.
On the welfare of their members, the Comrade said that ” it is on record that we have never missed negotiating good packages for our members”. According to him, despite the economic meltdown and covid 19, the Union has never missed the biannual National Industrial Council meetings where they sit to negotiate for increase of salaries of members. “I remember we agreed that salaries of our members is to be increased every 2 years by 30% even during covid 19”. “Our Union has gone far on the lingering talk of minimum wage by virtue of our current leadership”. He said.
On the obligation of NUFBTE to its members, he said “the nature of our job is advocacy. We defend our members when they have issues and we make sure we monitor their operations and we have been evolving because we can’t afford to be complacent and that is why the current leadership came on board. We have therefore been able to use every available opportunity to improve ourselves”.
