On arrival on Thursday, December 5, 2024 in Bonny Island, Rivers State, the serene home of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited’s gas liquefaction plant and the train 7 project, National President of the National Union of Civil Engineering, Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW), Stephen Okoro granted an interview with Kristina Reports crew led by Igey Rokalke.

He spoke excitedly, predicating the achievement of the current 52 million manhours without lost time injury (LTI) on the contributions of workers on the Train 7 project, the peaceful ambience of Bonny Island, collaborative relationship between the project owner, Nigeria LNG, project implementers, SCD JV (Saipem, Chiyoda and Daewoo Joint Venture) and the labour unions which members are working on the project. Enjoy the read!

Kristina Reports: Welcome to Bonny Island, a kingdom that is blessed with oil and gas and other mineral resource. May we know you and the purpose of your visit?

Stephen Okoro: Okay, my name is Stephen Okoro, the national president of construction workers in Nigeria and the purpose of my visit is that our members are here, and we are a part of the country. We believe that where our workers are we have to pay a kind of working visit to them to see what is happening in that place and we already know what is happening there. The project is already going on, work is going on and we have peace for now and peace will continue.

Considering the nature of the ongoing NLNG Train 7 Project, what do you have to say regarding the manhours jointly achieved by the construction workers in project?

First of all, I will give it to our members – our construction workers here – I give it to them because without their collaborations and their efforts the manhours achieved, so far, will not be achieved and I want to commend them. I also want to commend the leadership of the union who have been coordinating the affairs of the workers for the time past, and I will also commend the coordinating management of the project for collaborating with the union and the work that the manhour increase and what we want as a nation and even as a union to see that we have an improved manhour in any of our working site.

So, it’s not regulated to here alone, it’s regulated to all our project sites throughout the nation. So, we recommend that production be increased and more effort be put in terms of any of our projects. So, I give it to them.  

We understand that in the history of negotiations in Bonny Island, this is the first time 35℅ is being recorded and this is under your leadership as National President of NUCECFWW, this was in the second round of negotiations in the ongoing NLNG T7 project Bonny Island. What is the secret?

Well, the secret is nothing but God first because whatever achievement you make without God you can’t achieve. The second is, I have a strong team. The team that knows that the welfare condition must be improved upon and the need to put in effort and pressure because without effort, no management will give you money. No management will increase your wages without strong effort and with their collaboration and pressure we continue to mount I think we will achieve that. We also look backward at what has not been achieved before. What can we do more than our predecessors? This is the purpose of leadership to make sure that you exceed what they have done in the time past.

How would you rate the working relationship between your union, NUCECFWW, and the NLNG and other sub-contractors such as Daewoo, Saipem, etc.?

It’s all part of what I’ve been saying before. The union is an organized structure. It is the affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress and anyone that is working in the construction industry must belong, must key in under the NUCECFWW which is the National Union of Civil Engineering, Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW), and it’s in the Labour Act, it’s very clear, and if you are operating under this umbrella you must coordinate, you must work together as a team to ensure that this body, which is one, cannot be divided by any individual or by selfish reason of anybody.

What we want is that this is a country that made laws and these laws are obeyed. We know that many people are coming together as a team to meet with to register different kinds of associations but they know what is in the law and they will not go against it. If they go against the law, we, the union that have been recognized by the Federal Government, by the laws of the land, we will go against them and that’s what we have been doing. So, the collaboration is not for us alone, it’s for the members we have in the branch level and we coordinate with the management of all companies because you cannot give, you can only ask. You can only give pressure but somebody must give and for you to give, you must use some diplomacy and this flow must be there. There must be a connection and if you have that connection, I think the sky will be your limit and these are the things that have been connecting us together.

Expectations are high as can be seen amongst the workers that your visit to the NLNG T7 project in Bonny Island will be a massive blessing to the entire workforce, do you agree with this sentiment? 

As long as I’m concerned, my coming here, which they already know is a blessing. There’s no how you will visit a place without thinking about blessing. I’m thinking about them and if I have to visit a place like this, I need to jot something down. I need to say, ‘management, this is the area you are having shortcoming, this is the area you need to amend, this is what you need to do for all of our membership. So, it’s for the interest of our members and for our own interest because if our members are strong, we are strong. Like the song they just sang there, the more we are together, the stronger we become because if you are divided in mind because of your selfish reason, we won’t be stronger. It’s not for me. If we give them more wage, they are not going to give me or put it in my pocket. But perhaps, some of my brothers are also working here, they will also get something and these guys that are my members today, they are my brothers. I don’t have any other brother today. These are my people and whatever achievement that they’ve got is for all of us and that is our prayer.

Thank you, Sir.

God bless you. Thank you very much.