That NLC Public Rally In Support Of Anti-Corruption Campaign

That NLC Public Rally In Support Of Anti-Corruption Campaign
Last week Thursday, organised labour, under the aegis of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) hit the road in different uniforms and face caps. It was a solidarity walk in support of the Gen. Muhammadu Buhari-led government’s anti-corruption campaign.
Several Chapters of the NLC undertook the walk in their various states to public institutions and engaged elected representatives of the executive and legislative arms and also visited the courts.
NLC President (don’t know if the factions have harmonised) led some  workers to the National Assembly, the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF and indeed the Judiciary. Apparently overwhelmed by the anti-corruption drive, the NLC President promised labour’s undiluted support to the Federal Government’s programme, in all its ramifications.
The NLC President did not end there. He went further to threaten that Labour will henceforth engage judges who allow questionable adjournments intended to delay justice. Workers, he also said, would practically bundle to the courts, corruption suspects who continue to lie under technicalities to defend themselves.
What the NLC President practically implies, is that workers would henceforth, take-over the duties of the Police and other security agencies by bundling suspects to courts and at other times perform the functions of the National Judicial Council (NJC) by dealing with judges, perceived to be stumbling blocks to the anti-corruption crusade of the federal government.
The spirit, drive and tenacity of organised labour are indeed commendable. It indeed underscores labour’s willingness and readiness to rise to the occasion and confront what it considers a critical national malady, responsible for the nation’s dwindling revenue. Afterall, labour formed part of the national brigade of politicians and statemen who secured independence for Nigeria.
During military rule, when the need for civil rule took the front burner, labour was also on the side of the Press and the Pro-democracy Movement, all of which fought for the actualisation of democratic rule in 1999.
This is why labour’s new line of action should not surprise anyone, afterall, no weapon, humbles public institutions faster than strikes which the NLC has in good measure. Any institution or judge or politician found undermining the NLC’s threat will, without delay, feel its major instrument-strike.
It is for this reason that each time labour coughs, governments at all levels catch cold. Labour has coughed. It has threatened fire and brimstone but not many have caught cold this time.
For one thing, organised labour and many of its workers are not completely innocent of the corruption NLC marched against last Thursday. As accountants, some of them facilitate fleecing of public funds by public officers; as cashiers, they enhance easy preparation of schedules and cheques, for various fees, as tanker drivers, some divert supplies to areas they are not meant; as teachers, they impose all manner of questionable levies and toiletries on their pupils; as NNPC line operators they make discharges to oil thieves; as journalists, they sing the praise of politicians who spend between N100 and N200 million on the marriages of their children, as filling station attendants, they favour the black market; as theatre artistes, they source sponsorship from known corrupt politicians to get bye, and some of them are partisan politicians, even thugs.
How can such corrupt workers sit in judgment over bigger thieves? Won’t ‘one bag’ be enough to dismiss them?
Surely, no generalisation is intended, but can the NLC leadership say without fear of contradiction that some workers are indeed corrupt? And that without their assistance, no Minister or Commissioner can siphon public funds? Or is the NLC not aware that there are some Grade Level 5 officers, in charge of certain files in key federal ministries that own three to four mansions and a convoy of choice auto-mobiles?
That is why Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, told the NLC delegation that visited him, that the moral cleansing should start first within organised labour ranks. NLC must set-up necessary platforms of indentifying corrupt members among its midst first and foremost before such purification can spill-over.
Beyond such secret crimes, strikes and threats of strike by some labour unions have also become major money spinners. Each time such threats are issued what is discussed is not always the issues in dispute alone. Labour leaders some of them, that is, also get bye, as a means of becoming vocal enough to convince the followership of agreements reached.
This is partly why strikes re-occur for the same reason, with the excuse that either the government promised to implement the issues agreed upon or plans, to but with the familiar inducement, any deprivation should be endured.
At other times, labour movements become tools in the hands of politicians while the NLC looks the other way. For instance, the Rivers State Chapter of the Judicial Workers Union proceeded on strike to enhance the closure of Rivers Courts for over a year over reasons that are insulting to the ears.
How does the choice of a Chief Judge in the state affect their jobs and for which they chose to stay away from work? Was it not to please a certain political pressure, at great loss to the peoples, anxious litigants and friends of the courts?
Leader of those unions, we were told were indeed richer for such unholy collaborations or marriage to political pressures against the ethics of the labour movement. Where was NLC? Has organised labour even found it necessary to investigate the role of its members in the political disputations in Rivers State, prior to the 2015 general elections?
Is it not partly for such freebies, which the weapon of strikes often attract, that NLC elections have continued to get more and more rancorous, even more violent than those of politicians? Labour offices are randomly attacked by suspected sympathisers of rival groups while, at other times individuals are assaulted, even maimed.
Infact, up till the rally, various states still have two factions of the NLC, each claiming to be more authentic than the other. And at the national level, the feuding leaders were made to appear on national television in pretenious smiles that all was well. Comrade Governor Adams Oshmole also confirmed same, but it is yet to trickle down to the states?
What does the NLC think is the major attraction to the scramble for power?, Service? Just Service? What of the Power to call strikes which opens all vaults? What of the regular freebies such positions attract during labour day celebrations, even from the most corrupt of governors?
Can the NLC truly depend on check-off dues alone from members to survive? Has it all these years? If any of its many benefactors is found to be guilty of corruption can the NLC return to the state such freebie sourced from the corrupt officer, say Governor, Deputy Governor, Minister or Commissioner? Or join him in prison?
These are why many think that the NLC message of support went far beyond solidarity. It is a threat to lawlessness on bundling to courts, suspects facing corruption allegations and telling judges to leave the law and base their judgements on sentiment to please a government and a labour movement.
These indeed are strong words and those who come before equlity  need to do so with clean hands. NLC must first fish-out corrupt workers in its ranks, indentify political labour leaders and secret aides to corrupt public officers before confronting corruption elsewhere.
The war against corruption is one, many Nigerians are in support of, because not only will it help recover stolen public funds for other positive uses, it will also help sanitise the political mine-field of gamblers and rogues.
But that cannot be achieved under condition that convicts suspects even before trial or force judges to convict any one accused of corruption because government expects so, without valid facts. Labour must respect the Rule of Law.
My Agony is that NLC does not even know that even foot soldiers that may be sent on such assignments, as bundling corruption suspects to courts, would days later be so rich, many will scramble for such positions as they do, those of NLC. Let NLC look at the anti-corruption campaign with clean eyes. That’s my advice.