The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), penultimate week, marked its 40th Anniversary with its leaders and other associates taking turns to bemoan the plight of the Nigerian worker in the face of ever increasing challenges. This is against the assurance by the Labour and Productivity Minister, Dr Chris Ngige, who, during the anniversary, promised that the Federal Government would implement the New National Minimum Wage in the third quarter of this year.
The NLC, by its formation in February 1978, is saddled mainly with the responsibility of agitating for the welfare of Nigerian workers; but how far this apparently onerous task has been achieved by successive leaderships remains a moot point among members and friends of Africa’s largest labour conglomerate.
While it may be admitted that the NLC has, within these four decades, achieved some milestones on its chequered path, The Tide is, however, appalled by the fact that revenues accruing to government and the labour unions have continued to grow even as the average Nigerian worker is persistently plagued by a plethora of challenges, including the inability to procure some basic necessities of life such as food, shelter, clothing, medication, potable water, transportation and electricity.
The so-called minimum wage over which there is always so much media hype, if and when approved, had often been implemented in the breach by governments at all tiers, even as inflation and multiple deductions were on standby to further exact their tolls on whatever was eventually payrolled for the worker.
We recall that while trying to rise in defence of the Nigerian working class, the NLC had sometimes stood in the way of ruthless state authorities, particularly under military regimes. One of such confrontations was responsible for the nine months ban on the Congress in 1988 under General Ibrahim Babangida. The same fate also befell the NLC between 1994 and 1998 under General Sani Abacha.
The democratic reforms introduced in the 1999 Constitution, some of which annulled most of the military’s draconian decrees, ought to have served to embolden the then resurgent NLC, but its leaders at that time did not appear to have recovered from their immediate past experiences. It was, indeed, at this point that the new civilian administration became more relentless in its attempt to balkanize the once formidable labour movement in Nigeria.
While we rejoice with the NLC at 40, we also expect it to take a deep reflection on the welfare of workers in the country, especially as it affects gratuity, pensions, death benefits, casualisation, and non-unionisation of workers by some employers, among other demands.
Labour leaders in Nigeria must wake up from their slumber and strive to hold government accountable as was the case in the days of Pa Michael Imoudu, Hassan Sunmonu, Paschal Bafyau and of recent, Adams Oshiomhole. In fact, they should also take a cue from some of their counterparts in other countries who had gone ahead to contest for the highest political offices in their countries.
In South Africa, for instance, the erstwhile President, Jacob Zuma, and the incumbent, Cyril Ramaphosa, were said to have ridden on the wings of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) to occupy strategic offices in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) before ascending to the Presidency.
Our concern remains that the current NLC leadership is clueless and this is adversely affecting the wellbeing of the Nigerian worker. Today, workers are owed arrears of salaries (up to 13 months in some states) while others have been denied yearly increments and promotions. Even the newly introduced contributory pension scheme is already suffering hiccups in some states as the authorities had since ceased to make any more remittances on behalf of their workers.
Meanwhile, petrol is becoming scarce every day with government speaking from both sides of its mouth, just as oil workers are being laid off daily. And the NLC still claims to be in existence and very much relevant. Haba!