Mournful celebration for Nigerian workers

It is yet another Workers’ Day, a day that Nigerian workers join their counterparts worldwide in solidarity to express their views on issues affecting their lives. It is a day to speak aloud about working conditions, employer-employee relations, and the economy, among others.

It is also instructive that this will be the first celebration to be presided over by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and Nigerian workers will use the opportunity to assess how they have fared in the past one year under the new president.

Undoubtedly, the workers would be discussing some of the issues confronting the country today, like widespread unemployment that has worsened in the past few months due to massive job losses, rising cost of goods and services occasioned by forex scarcity and increased inflation, epileptic power supply and persistent fuel scarcity, high cost of governance, decayed infrastructure, among others.

While the above are worthwhile issues, we believe labour should equally take some reflections on itself. We are appalled that for over one year now the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has operated like a house divided against itself, with factions. This, for us, is a national embarrassment. How can a factionalised labour present a common front on issues affecting the country and, in particular, its members? No wonder labour’s voice has virtually been swallowed up, with not as much as a whimper, while virtually everything has gone wrong in the country in the past few months.

The actions of labour in recent times, from its botched elections last year to the present factions in the movement, leave much to be desired, and we still call on both the Ayuba Wabba-led and Joe Ajaero-led wings of NLC to settle their issues and unite the union once and for all.

In the last few years, May Day in Nigeria seems to have lost its essence. It has become a forum for union leaders to establish personal relationships with politicians rather than use the day to focus on issues of importance to workers and the working class. Union leaders are too pleased to be seen cutting May Day cakes on a day that should be used to remember workers who have lost their lives in the struggle.

The present division in the union will not lead to achievement of the objectives of the founding fathers. Workers should, in the spirit of the moment, strive to put their house in order as a divided house can never stand.

The country in general and workers in particular are facing challenging times. Ironically, workers are made to bear the brunt in the form of non-payment of salaries, especially by some state governments, slash in salaries, and job losses in extreme cases.

We are sad to recall that for many years, the Nigerian worker has never really celebrated the Workers’ Day in the real sense of the word. Ordinarily, it is supposed to be, among other things, a day when Nigerian workers, like their colleagues in other parts of the world, clink glasses and make merry, but the Nigerian workers’ experience has been far from the normal.

In a country where corruption is endemic, where public officeholders earn unbelievable salaries and jaw-dropping allowances, the average Nigerian civil servant goes home at the end of the month with a peanut-like salary. The minimum wage of N18,000 per month is an aberration in a country that has been dollarised by politicians, many of whose sources are neither transparent not justifiable. Even this paltry sum is still in contention in some states of the federation, with many states owing salary arrears of many months.

Today, while workers are supposed to rejoice, a good number of them have not received their peanut salaries for many months. Meanwhile, former state governors who looted their states’ treasuries dry before exiting office are still walking free, in spite of the whole noise by the presidency about anti-corruption fight.

Workers’ Day in Nigeria has unfortunately turned to a mourning day when the hapless workers bemoan their slavish experience in the name of employment.

It is time workers come together and present a common front on issues affecting their welfare. Beyond the rallies today, Nigerian workers should demand action, not just from government but also from their leaders. Workers, and indeed Nigerians, would like to see unions that act in their interest as different from ones that create class of labour aristocrats.

On its part, the Buhari administration should look at the mood of the supposed “celebrants” and see how to stop the culture of workers weeping on a day that is supposed to be a happy day for them.