Workers From North, Chad, Niger Have Taken Over State --Imo Labourers

"We have never had it this bad before because people who need workers
always come to this place and hire us, but now we sit here from
morning till evening without anybody coming to hire us and most times
it is very difficult to transport ourselves back home."

These were the exact words of Mr. Njoku Cletus, a mason as he lamented
the plight of labourers in Imo State.

Menial workers are a common sight around the Owerri metropolis,
especially around Mbaise Junction by Douglas and at the popular Ama
J.K near the NIPOST office where they always gather everyday waiting
and hoping for those who would come to seek their services ranging
from plumbing, bricklaying, painting and carpentry.

In the past, these low category itinerant workers find work to do to
eke out a living. But ironically while the state appears to be a
massive construction site now as new buildings are sprouting up every
day, this class of workers is left without works to do.

Oriental News gathered that the majority of the daily itinerant
workers have been somewhat driven out of job by the Hausas, Nigeriens
and Chadians who were said to agree to take whatever is paid to them
by the building contractors in the state.

It was equally said that since the present Governor Rochas Okorocha
administration came on board which witnessed a high influx of young
men from the North to the state, most of the jobs they used to do are
now being given to the Hausas while they are left with nothing to do,
making them to wonder how they are going to cater for their various
families. This, they said, has reduced most of them to beggars.

According to Ikechukwu Nwaobasi, a mason, "the labourers in almost all
the new building sites are either Hausas or those from Chad or Niger
and the reasons for hiring them is what we do not know because the
majority of them are not professionals."

He noted that the only reason the contractors preferred the Hausas or
those from Chad was simply because they would accept whatever they are
paid for a day.

"If you go to any new building site in Owerri, you will discover that
the majority of those working there are either Hausas or those from
Niger and Chad even when they are not as good as we are because the
majority of the people you see here are professionals; and when you
come here and tell us what you want, whether it is painting, plumbing,
bricklaying or carpentry work we will charge appropriately and if you
accept our price we will go with you to the place do it to your
satisfaction.

"But I think that the contractors simply hire the Hausa and Chad
people because they will take whatever they pay them because most of
them don't have families and don't pay rent and so they can afford to
accept anything given to them."

Speaking in the same vein, Mathew Okereafor noted that even in the Imo
State Government House, those usually favoured to carry out jobs are
those from the North while the natives are never considered for such
opportunities.

"We are suffering in this state because even in the Government House
if there is anything to be done, it is usually the people from the
North or Chad while the indigenes are never considered. We have never
witnessed this kind of thing before. Even those who mend the roads in
the state are usually those from the North and we are wondering if we
are not supposed to enjoy our own state," he lamented.

Chief Adike Nnaji, one of the building contractors, who spoke with
Oriental News, said the reason most contractors prefer to hire either
Hausa or the Chadians was because they would do the work according to
specification.

"When they are complaining of not being hired for work, the reason
behind that is that most of them are simply lazy and would not do as
told. You must realize that when you hire a worker for a day's job
that work must be completed that very day but in most cases they will
not be able to as instructed either because they know you. But give
the same work to the Hausa man and he will do whatever he is asked to
do without complaining, so you now see the difference," he said.

He said that the people just want money without working for it, noting
that as a businessman, he would only engage those who would be willing
to work.

"I had engaged one of my kinsmen to fix five doors on the new building
that I was handling; could you imagine that it took him almost two
weeks to do that and each day, he will give an excuse but in the next
project that I handled I called a man from Kwara State and in a week
the entire doors of the entire house were fixed. So, when you see most
of them on Douglas Road or at Ama JK it's because people have
discovered that they are lazy people," he said.
--VOFNImo