Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, on Wednesday blamed his colleagues over the ongoing ordeal in the hands of the Nigeria Labour Congress.
Kaduna State government has been in a deadlock with NLC after recently retrenching 45,000 workers in the state.
The development led to protests and strike by the state workers, which grounded economic and social activities in the state.
El-Rufai even had to declare the NLC chairman, Ayuba Wabba wanted.
Speaking at the NGF virtual meeting, the governor accused his counterparts of neglecting him over his ordeal with NLC.
He also alleged that a state governor was financing the NLC to ground Kaduna State.
“I am a governor. I am one of you. The least I expect from the Nigeria Governors Forum is unequivocal and unqualified support. I didn’t see that in that statement.
“I am being very blunt. I could pretend, be a politician and just smile and say it was alright, but it is not. But I am used to fighting my own battles.”
Speaking on the NLC action in his state, El-Rufai said labour unions have turned into a threat to Nigeria, imploring governors to come together and fight them.
According to him, “We will fight this. We are breaking them and they will leave town ashamed. I will not give them one inch because this is not about unionism.
“If it is about workers’ rights, Kaduna is not the only state that has retrenched workers. Kaduna is not a state owing salaries. Kaduna is not a state failing to pay minimum wage. Kaduna is not a state owing years of pension arrears. Why didn’t they go there? Kaduna was targeted for political reasons; and they are being financed by certain political interests. But we will fight them, we will defeat them but as the Governor of Bayelsa said, and since he has brought that subject, I have a responsibility to put it through, unless we collectively address this monster, it will consume all of us.
“After this, they (NLC) will never come back to Kaduna. They will never come back, you will see. They will go to other states. It is up to the forum to decide on what to do, but we are here, we are ready, we will end this by the grace of God.
“I would like to inform the forum that one of our colleagues, a state governor, actually gave the NLC money to come to Kaduna to do this because people think everything is politics. This is not politics. This is a monster that will consume all of us. It will not consume Kaduna, I’m confident of that.”