National President of the association of Construction & Civil Engineering Senior Staff Association CCESSA Comrade Augustine Etafo has lauded government initiatives to partner with countries that are ready to invest in Nigeria with intention of aiding the infrastructural development and contributing to the growth of the economy. In a press statement made available to Nigerian Pilot, the association’s president commended Government and the Chinese counterpart for the bilateral agreement and the Memorandum of understanding reached with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), and it was heartwarming to note that the company, as claimed in one of the Nigerian national dailies, by China’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. U Yucheng, that CCECC will be investing massively in Nigeria, with planned investment in Real Estate, cement manufacturing, Sea Ports, railways, highways development and the steel industry among others. Mr. Li also added that the Chinese Construction giant CCECC doing business in Nigeria has employed about 20,000 Nigerians with about 1,000 Expatriates. The statement however noted that the Chinese construction giant failed to inform the public that against 1000 expatriates on record, there are only 35 senior staff in all their formation in Nigeria which is certainly indefensible and also in contrast distinction to the extant law on expatriate quota; and even the labour laws, while It is unbelievable that among the 20,000 Nigerians employed in the entire operations in Nigeria only 35 are senior staff. This has serious complication for Nigerian graduates. Etafo noted that it seems very convenient for the Chinese multinational corporation to employ 1000 expatriates, and only 35 Nigerians, and what happens to the Nigerian professionals who are supposed to work in the establishments? It means the professional like Engineers, accountants, human resource personnel are not needed by the company or what? He said: “this situation leads to motion without development and how do we transfer technology between expatriates and junior staff? This trend has defined Chinese company in Nigeria. If this continues we may be left with no option than to conclude that China does not intend to transfer technology to Nigerians. One would have expected that in line with expatriate quota, the character of employees should be such that it can enhance transfer of technology to the local populace. This brings us to the second aspect of our worry, which is; in a desperate attempt to get hold on our government they compromise quality, standard and go for the lowest cadre of labour, thus leaving a great gap between quality and price. Continuing he said” of the 1000 Chinese is working where only 35 Nigerian graduates are employed only leads to conclusion: Nigeria is sinking into deeper graduate unemployment while Chinese is solving their unemployment problems in Nigeria. Again, what is the qualification of the so-called expatriates? A cursory visit to the sites of this company show, that we have expatriates cooks, expatriate house keepers and expatriate clerks, in the end what they call expatriates are people who could not find employment in China and are brought to Nigeria.” He said He therefore questioned the character of employment relations in such establishment, whereas the junior staff is wholly Nigerians, and is numerous, the senior cadre employment is supposed to be shared between the expatriates and the Nigerians, as expatriates like the name suggests are supposed to be employed where the local employees lack capacity unfortunately the reverse is the case. He however urged Government to take cognizance of the fact that it is not enough to sign agreements, but that Nigerian workers interest must also be factored in and with the desire that Nigerians are trained to take over the jobs of expatriates after they have understudied them. Etafo said that CCESSA is not advocating that all expatriates should be sent packing nor is he saying that Nigerians can handle all the complexities involved in the construction industry, But the point is that, genuinely there are areas where the presence of experts is imperative and in many other areas, local staff has the capacity to manage affairs with Such local staff given the opportunity to perform, initially under the supervision of the relevant experts. He noted that in the industry, they have Engineers, Architects, Surveyors, Personnel Officers, Accountants e.t.c and believed if all of these are recognized and properly placed, then CCECC Company cannot be talking of less than 2000 senior staff as against the 1000 expatriates that they have rightly or wrongly established. He however welcomed Chinese investors in Nigeria, and that it must be made to benefit Nigerians and not as a ploy to solve their own unemployment crisis.
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