The Imperatives Of Professional Bodies And Umbrella Associations: POHAN In Focus

By Fanisi Babatunde GCFR

Globally, workers and employees join professional bodies cum employee associations for the benefit of protecting their interests( Job Security) while also diplomatically fighting for some important entitlements.

This is due to that fact that the changing face of global economic climate and financial standing of every business entity be it public or private is obviously a staring reality. Business owners have more areas of priorities to spend on while the government as the biggest spender in an economy has more areas of priorities to spend on.

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Employee Associations guarantees a special negotiating platform for all both those within an organization or those who have just exited. It saves the burden of negotiating or agitating individually that sometimes leads to victimization of the lone agitator. When the rights and privileges of employees are negotiated collectively by their representatives, audience with Constituted authorities are usually given priority than when negotiated individually.

Take for instance, the various umbrella bodies of the various working occupations in Nigeria like ASUU, NMA and the rest of them we have in the country. The strength of those umbrella bodies lies in the collectivism in approach especially when fighting for the rights of members.

Likewise the Nigerian union of pensioners, an umbrella body of pensioners in Nigeria whose singular aim is to at all times negotiate collectively and press home demands of the totality of the entire pensioners on the government.

The importance of the various umbrella Associations cannot be over emphasized as they are the only professional and viable routes of communicating grievances to employers by international conventions both in the private and the public sector.

Recently, there was a debate on some ex political office holders being owed some legal sign out entitlements and an individual protested alone. Government does not understand that pattern of communication and that’s the reality.

Political office holders both serving and those that are done serving should come under a professional umbrella body to communicate such to the government in a more diplomatic way. Looking at the barages of worries expressed by even former political office holders that serve more than 10 years ago casting the government in bad light will not attract the necessary attention it deserves. A professional umbrella body will do.

Political office holders known as public servants can come under an umbrella body not only for the sake of negotiation of goodies but also serve as a platform for beneficial exit plans for themselves by setting up cooperative society where every appointee makes a compulsory contribution monthly and withdraw whatever he or she has contributed at the end of the service tenure or termination whichever comes first.

This body will also diplomatically have some form of relationship with every government in power regardless of the political party they belong to so as to discuss salient issues as the issue of exit & Severance compensation.

I can bet you this body will wield enormous strength especially when it comes to electoral political decisions since it already parades an array of past political office holders at both the state and federal level. Issues that concerns the body will be a negotiating tool whenever their supports are needed for subsequent election persecution and this way, no candidate or government will not give them priority when finally the government is formed.

Those who are in the system might not see the sense in this because they are still in the system and sees those who are outside as noisemakers. One thing is certain, those inside will become outsiders someday so it’s better to give the idea an holistic look.

Fortunately, there is a professional/Umbrella body called “POHAN” which has a template that has already being institutionalized that can serve this purpose. It’s my desire that all public servants in our beloved State including the those serving and former public officials should join this professional umbrella association for all public servants for effective communication of grievances and also a liaison between the former and the present.

The core mandates and objectives of POHAN includes but not limited to the following:

Promoting high ethical standards in discharging duties as public office holder
Regulate the relations and settle disputes between members and employers
Promoting and encourage international fraternal relations with bodies having the interest of public office holders
To obtain and maintain a just and equitable general conditions of service for public office holders in Nigeria
To advance the education, training and retraining of public office holders for effective and professional service delivery to Nigerians.
The promotion of guidelines, ethics or ideas that represent the most efficient or prudent cause of action of public office holders towards achieving best practice.
To aid and support in relevant areas towards enhancing their wealth of knowledge in carrying out their statutory duties efficiently for the betterment of the Nigerian People.
To continually strive to influence public corporate policies and legislation on all issues at all levels for the overall interest of Nigerians.