Nigeria Loses 4.7m Man-Days To Strikes

The Presiding Judge of the National Industrial Court (NIC), Lagos Division, Hon. Justice Benedict Kanyip has described as alarming the man-days lost as a result of strike actions by Nigerian workers between 2004 and 2009.

The Judge who referenced the 321 labour-related disputes handled by the Federal Ministry of Labour through its mediation and conciliation functions within the period, said that the nation lost 4,750,291 man-days to strikes.

Hon. Justice Kanyip stated this in a paper he delivered at a public lecture organized by the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Lagos, penultimate Thursday The paper was titled – “Resolving Labour.-related Disputes for Enhanced Development in 21st Century Nigeria.

According to him, the man-days were lost in respect of strikes cutting across different sectors of the economy and reiterated that industrial actions were inimical to the country’s development.

“One sad trend in the country is the fact that within the body polity, it seems that we have reached that point where nothing can be secured without some form of agitation. Demdnds that are rightfully one’s can only be achieved if forcefully agitated for.

“This fact gains prominence even in the political sphere as we daily see in political agitations as evident in the Niger Delta struggles”, the Judge lamented.

Hon. Justice Kanyip posited that the plethora of industrial actions in the country meant that little emphasis was placed on dispute prevention and stressed the need for the nation to reappraise her traditional thinking in labour law in order to keep pace with global challenges.

He equally said that the nation must evolve dispute prevention measures such as development of codes of good practice and model agreements to guide employer and workers’ conduct, as well as enterprise, high level capacity building to reduce labour-related misunderstandings.

Earlier in his address of welcome, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) of the University, Prof. Mba Okoronkwo said the school attached much importance to the lecture because of its global nature.

Hamilton Amadi, Lagos