As the saying goes, his reputation precedes him as a vocal activist, defender of the downtrodden and one who would rather suffer than see people around him be treated unjustly. On a particular day, as those who witnessed the incident reported, he saw a teenage girl being forced on to a commercial motorcycle, popularly known as Okada, by a young man who had the visage of a cultist, he walked up to them and asked the girl to step down and go home. He ordered the young man to leave the scene and never try that act next time. Ostensibly, this was at the risk of being attacked by the girl’s assailant or his colleagues. But this is Aladiokuma Henry Hart, popularly known as ‘The Mayor’.

He has had an antecedent in activism right from his university days to the Niger Delta struggle, which he played some very key roles in streamlining the issues of neglect of the people and despoliation of the region’s environment by oil and gas exploration and exploitation, to his stint as Chairman of the Finima Youth Congress (FYC), and most recently, as Chairman of the Bonny Integrated Recruitment Centre (BIRC). For close watchers of his leadership strides, he has always exemplified courage, forthrightness and commitment to the cause of Bonny Kingdom, Rivers State and the Niger Delta. This is aside his social impact, humanitarian services and philanthropy, which many far and near have benefitted from.

In this interview with the Publisher of Kristina Reports, Godswill Jumbo, the immediate past BIRC helmsman, Mayor Ala Hart spoke on life after BIRC, his time in office and offered his opinion on some of the teething industrial issues around Bonny LGA, especially, in the run-up to the Train 7 project of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), among others. Enjoy the read!

Kristina Reports: It has been a while since you exited office as Chairman of the Bonny Integrated Recruitment Centre (BIRC), how has life been?

Mayor Ala Hart: Life has been splendid as usual, having nice time out here with my family.  I am going about my business and as you can see God has been blessing me real good. It is worthy of note that the Bureau is not a means to an end as people thought. I have had my personal businesses before assuming that office.

There have been concerns about the payment system, salaries, allowances and other entitlements of workers on various sites in Bonny, during your time, what was it like?

In my time as BIRC Chairman, salary is standard and varies according to grade. N150,000 flat rate was being paid for small construction companies for the least workers (helpers), especially, when it is lump sum and N200,000 was being paid for Grade A companies such as Alcon, etc.

These information are verifiable in the community from different people, especially, our own brothers such as Isaac Banigo, who was the Secretary of BIRC as at that time; Ida Julius Benstowe, who was then and still the Vice Chairman of BIRC; and our own dear Honourable Councillor, Hon. Daniel Green, who was then in charge of Empowerment and Employment at the Bonny Youth Federation (BYF). You can also ask individuals such as Markson Tolofari, who was Special Assistant on Security to the Local Government Chairman then, our brothers, Frank Hart, Gbenye Loveday Benstowe, Iboroma Jumbo, Christian Adango Tobin, and Secretary Emeritus of BYF, Boma Gabriel Brown, and so on.

My findings recently indicate that, unfortunately, these standards are gradually fading off and our people are the worse off. When I say our people, these include both indigenes and non-indigenes, as long as they are working on project sites in our Kingdom, they are our responsibility.

As a former Chairman of the BIRC cum Employment Bureau and your very broad experience in managing these industrial issues, what areas do you think the current leadership should look into and make improvements?

For me, I think the leadership should be more concerned with the salaries and welfare of workers and job security for Bonny people. There have been challenges in accessing companies in ExxonMobil not until my administration. Companies such as Sudoletra, etc. were generally inaccessible but we reached them and ensured they did the right thing.

It is important that the salaries for workers should be negotiated by their individual trade unions, who should know better what challenges their colleagues are facing in the course of doing their work. These are the people doing the job and they know where the shoe is pinching them. So, allow them negotiate their wages and allowances. It will help to lower tension between the workers and their companies. It will also help to showcase transparency because nobody will be suspecting whether the Employment Bureau has taken money to undo the workers. It is my advice, though.

Furthermore, during my administration, salaries were negotiated for companies, which is still in force till date. This is the case in companies such as C&I Leasing, C-Ton Lala, Mandilas, and some trades such as Rope Access, Welders and Pipe-Fitters, among others. I believe these will help to calm down all the tension we are seeing and help boost the reputation of the Chairman and his team members.