Director General of Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies,(MINILS) Ilorin Comrade Issa AREMU has called on all the agencies of Government at all levels to support and diligently implement the recently approved Renewed Hope Nigeria First Policy initiative of President Bola Tinubu GCFR.
The Renewed Hope Nigeria First Policy
initiative by President Bola Tinubu aimed at placing Nigerians at the heart of all business and economic activities in the country was approved on Monday by
the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
In a chat with the media marking the 43rd anniversary of the founding of Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies,(MINILS) Ilorin, Comrade Aremu said the approved “Renewed Hope Nigeria First Policy” which prioritizes buying of Nigeria’s goods and services would accelerate the realization of Sustainable Development Goal 8 dealing with Decent work and economic growth.
Comrade Aremu said that Nigeria should not only consume what it produces but must intentionally and deliberately use national budgets to promote economic recovery by patronizing Nigerian products and services first as envisaged by Reformer -in- Chief President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Reflecting on the growth and development of the premier National Institute for labour studies since it was inaugurated by the late President SHEHU Shagari in 1983, comrade Aremu disclosed that it was the need for “Nigeria first in labour Education that made Nigerian government to take over all foreign sponsored labour education institutions that made Nigeria to establish a National Institute for Labour Studies in 1975 Labour Policy.
The 5th Director General said it was remarkable that MINILS has impacted on hundreds of thousands of Nigerian workers in the past 42 years through its regular systemic educational service delivery. Aremu said on assumption of office as the 5th Director General of MINILS he made it a deliberate policy to direct procurement process of the Institute to purchase locally assembled vehicles among others in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He therefore urged other relevant agencies key to the initiative by President Bola Tinubu aimed at placing Nigerians at the heart of all business and economic activities in the country.
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP OF COMRADE ISSA AREMU mni DG MINILS SINCE 2021
On the state of the Institute since 2021 assumed office the Director General praised the management team and staff in the past 4 years who have tirelessly offered transformational leadership to reposition the hitherto underperforming Institute to a fast-performing visible agency of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment based on its statutory mandate. “For the first time in its existence, MINILS) initiated and inaugurated a corporate Strategic Plan (2022-2026) for the Institute. The Plan sets the framework and roadmap for the systematic growth of MINILS within the context of its enabling statute, and the legitimate expectations of stakeholders making MINILS more visible, and aligned in its activities with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The Institute has also been active in promoting industrial harmony at workplaces, labour/ government social dialogue, youth skill acquisition programme, youth and women inclusion, and mass digital literacy for self-employment and empowerment. Members of organized trade unions in Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) as well as members of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) at Federal and the states regularly patronize MINILS today for labour education. As part of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to promote workplace harmony for national development, MINILS Surpassed the 2024 Ministerial Deliverables Target of 1250 to over 3000 on-site/online at the Institute in Ilorin. The 8- 8-point agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Labour, Employment and Employment Programme (LEEP) initiated by the Honorable Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Nkiruka Onyejeocha aimed at promoting youth employment through skill acquisitions and digital economy. MINILS under Mr Aremu has trained as many as 720 youths drawn across the Six Geo-political zone in the country on entrepreneurship skills in Cinematography & Photography, Carpentry &Wood work, Tie &Dye. Having completed the construction of the Entrepreneurship Development Centre in 2022 under his leadership, equipped with sewing machines, photographic and carpentry equipment, Mr Aremu has commendably diversified the Institute’s training beyond the traditional courses of collective bargaining, grievance handling for industrial peace and harmony at workplaces to include massive job creation and poverty eradication through skills acquisition training. Under the SKILL-UP-ARTISANS (SUPA) program of the Federal Government initiated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, MINILS under Mr Aremu trained 220 participants in various trades as; Cut and Sew, Woodwork and Carpentry and Designing.
INCLUSIVE TRAINING
MINILS also recorded a significant gender mix of both male and female participants from different unions, employers’ associations and states including People Living with Disabilities (PLWD) in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of inclusion of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Participants from the six geopolitical zones of the country attended the yearly MINILS training programmes implying that the Institute has impacted nationally based on its mandate.
CITIZENSHIP ENGAGEMENTS:
AREMU and 2023 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
The Director General has over 30 years of experience as a labour educator and mobilizer, negotiator and administrator, 25 of which he earned as the General Secretary of the National Union of Textile and Garment Workers, Vice President of the Nigeria Labour Congress ( NLC) and Vice President of Industriall Global Union with 50 million workforces worldwide. Understandably, given his impeccable credentials and pedigree as a tested labour leader, Comrade Issa Aremu mni was appointed the Director of the Labour Directorate of the Ashiwaju/ Shetimah Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of All Progressives Congress (APC). The Directorate inaugurated at the Presidential Villa on 29th Sept 2022 among others, engaged and mobilized workers, civil societies, labour unions and professional groups for the nationwide Presidential campaign that led to the historic victory of President Bola Tinubu of APC in 2023 as the 5th democratically elected President since 1999.
On Monday, December 19, 2022, as the Director of the Labour Directorate of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Aremu facilitated and set the tone for the historic Townhall meeting of Presidential candidate Bola Tinubu with organized Labour at Chida Events Centre, Chida International Hotel, Utako, Jabi, FCT. Labour Directorate, under his leadership, mobilized a total of 1,817 labour leaders as participants from 62 industrial unions affiliated with both the NLC and TUC for the engagement with the Presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The historic Town Hall engagement was adjudged the most successful by the PCC which contributed to the election of Sen. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Sen Kashim Shettima for President and Vice President respectively. Comrade Issa Aremu engages nationally and is significantly active locally.
10th MINILS Labour Summit and the Renewed Hope Reform Agenda.
As the Director-General of the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), Comrade Issa Aremu revived the hitherto moribund Annual flagship programme of the Institute by convening a Labour Summit to popularize the Renewed Hope Agenda of the present Administration. The summit held on Tuesday 26th in Ilorin attended by 759 workers, employers and government officials in the labour and industrial relations sector. The Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Barrister Nkeiruka Onyejeocha as the Chief Host of the significant event, declared the Summit open on behalf of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The summit drummed the necessary grassroots support for the Renewed Hope Agenda. Participants commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for being a change agent. The Summit resolutions included constructive suggestions to deepen the reform agenda of the Administration.
MINILS’ CITIZENSHIP ENGAGEMENT: New 2024 National Minimum wage.
Following the 2023 October 2nd 15-point Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between organized Labour and government after the removal of fuel subsidy, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inaugurated an inclusive 37-member tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee on Tuesday, January 30, 2024. As the Director General of MINILS, Comrade Issa Aremu mni initiated Cost of Living Market Survey that served as research inputs for the historic negotiation that led to the new National Minimum wage of N70,000.
Active Role in Minimum Wage Review
✅MINILS participation at the South West Zone public hearing for the National Minimum Wage Act organized by the Tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee, Lagos, March 7 2024.
✅MINILS Policy Dialogue on the New National Minimum Wage Act, March 16, 2024.
INSTITUTIONAL RENEWAL
Comrade Issa Aremu has also completed the inherited office, classrooms and hostel buildings, built a creche for working parents, diversified energy/electricity source to renewable solar energy, built a new quality 10KM access road with an extension to Olulade host community, initiated a new administrative block, regularly maintain the hitherto poorly unkept 15 hectares of land, regularly pays the care workers, invested in capacity building and welfare of staff to improve on staff morale, trained the trainers, and had raised the budget and revenue of the Institute. He has also commendably promoted mass citizenship engagements on the positive impact of the policy reforms of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, concerning the new 2024 minimum wage, alternative public transportation after fuel subsidy removal, new student loan fund initiative among others.
INFRASTRUCTURAL RENEWAL
In the past four years, Comrade Issa Aremu has reversed the infrastructural and environmental decay of the Institute. He has reconstructed the access road and extended this to the community, completed a hitherto abandoned U-shaped complex building of room offices and conference, massively renovated hostels, 1000- a capacity Auditorium, training Halls,
TRAINING AND CAPACITY BUILDING
On its core mandate of capacity building, MINILS has upscaled the promotion of both on-site and online labour education for industrial harmony and productivity improvement in Nigeria and the West Africa sub-region. Thousands of workers in public and private sectors have been impacted through the annual regular and tailor-made (in-plant) training of MINILS’ five core departments; namely (i)Trade Union Education (ii) Labour Management Relations(iii) Academic and Distance Learning programmes (iv) Entrepreneurial Development Department and (v) Social Protection Department.
Despite the challenges of COVID-19 in 2021/2022, MINILS organized hundreds of regular and in-plant courses for thousands of participants on the imperatives of social dialogue, collective bargaining and peaceful conflict resolution for industrial harmony. MINILS holds tailor-made courses on critical labour market subjects: Labour Laws and Employment Regulations, Organizing and Leadership Skills, Grievance and Conflict Resolution, Work Ethics and Values as tools for enhancing productivity, and trade union practices in a changing environment.
MINILS’ CITIZENSHIP ENGAGEMENT WITH POPULATION COMMISSION ON NATIONAL CENSUS
As part of its citizenship engagement on topical government policies, MINILS under Comrade Issa Aremu organized on Thursday 4th of May 2023 sensitization advocacy program with the National Population Commission on the imperative of national census. The major objective of the advocacy and sensitization was to mobilize the workers from both the formal and informal sectors in total support of the census and to ensure a huge success of the coming national population and housing census exercise attended by 1,500 participants. At the occasion the Chairman, of the National Population Commission, Hon. Nasir Isa Kwara mobilized all his Commissioners and other key officers to the Institute with the labour leaders in Kwara State in attendance.
REVENUE IMPROVEMENT
Also, our internally generated revenue from our highly subsidized courses marginally improved even though eroded by the high cost of training and transportation due to rising inflation. In the coming years, with improved capital and overhead budgets, MINILS promises to partner with our Ministers and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment to further surpass Ministerial targets and deliverables in line with the Renewed Hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL INSTITUTIONAL LINKAGES Comrade Issa Aremu has revived the moribund hitherto national and international linkages of MINILS attracting partnerships, competencies and resources to build the capacity for the INSTITUTE. A new Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) between the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS) and the International Training Center of the International Labour Organization (“ITCILO”) aimed at face-to-face and online training for MINILS staff and promotion of Decent Work and socio-economic development for Nigeria has been put in place. Similar linkages have been built with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) German Foundation committed (in both vision and activities) to the values of Social Democracy, Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) and Kwara State Government on domesticating National women initiatives and policies for women empowerment, West African Management Development Institute (WAMDEVIN), National Universities Commission (NUC) for Accreditation of the Institute’s Bachelor of Science in Industrial relations and Personnel Management Programme in Affiliation with University of Ilorin, Lagos State University ( LASU), The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Micheal Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies. ( MINILS), on National Policy Dialogue on “Living Wages and Corruption in Nigeria”, The National Salaries, Incomes & Wages Commission (NSIWC), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers Union of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS) Kuru.
The Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the area of capacity building for the country’s labour force got a boost last week as Geneva/based International Labour Organization (ILO) and the University of Greenwich’s Centre of Research on Employment and Work (UoG-CREW), London partner with Micheal Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies ( MINILS) Ilorin in the areas of workers’ education, training and research to enhance productivity, industrial peace and harmony at workplaces.
The historic partnership agreements between the MINILS, the premier Labour Institute in Nigeria, and the ILO International Training Centre(ITCILO) in Turin, Italy, are two major takeaways by the Nigerian delegation at the recently concluded 353rd Session of the Governing Body (GB) of the International Labour Organization (ILO), which was held from March 10 to 20 in Geneva.
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