Soon after the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC)Comrade Ayuba Wabba met with the Chief of Staff to the President at the presidential villa, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Mallam Garba Sheu disclosed that the Federal Government would resume talks with organized labour on Thursday, 4 October, 2018. On Sunday, labour suspended the strike action, which it had described as indefinite. In this interview with Federationews2day, the Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke says that the labour unions in Nigeria today can only bark, but cannot bite.
Excerpts :
Not long ago, labour proceeded on an indefinite strike action, over the new national minimum wage issue, but a few days into the strike it called it off. What are your views ?
Since the time of the late Michael Imoudu to the era of Hassan Sunmonu, labour unions were found to be very dynamic in effecting the necessary changes for workers in Nigeria.
This antecedent along the line of history made Nigerians to believe that the salvation of workers would be in the hands of the labour unions as pressure groups and that it would pay Nigeria to have a labour party as well, while labour leaders strive for power.
However, contrary is the case, in the era of Adams Oshiomole, he was a down to earth labour leader, but disappointedly lived below the expectation of the people as a politician opportuned to be in a sensitive position of State Governor and as a Chairman of a crumbling mega political party, which weeps everyday for people to rescue it, in the face of fierce opposition.
Against this background, the present labour unions, the NLC and the Trade Union Congress(TUC) are more of a polarized union system, whose dynamic members are made to operate in cloudy atmosphere of the political parties, that know the art and craft of what can easily weaken any pressure group.
Structurally, the demands of the unions are not holistic and too narrow, the direction would rather have been compelling the government to pay pension arrears to retirees as well as salary arrears to workers, two, ensuring that government at all levels do not owe workers anymore, three, ensuring that the political office holders' salaries and allowances are pruned down, foe example what Senators receive is too ridiculous to be imagined, N13.5 million compared to the minimum wage of N18,000, in the same environment where inflation and the prices of commodities are above the bearable level.
Once the workers are paid regularly, they would go to the market to buy, thereby making the currency to serve its purpose. A situation whereby workers are owed by government, demoralizes, demobilizes and weakens the morale to boost production activities.
Nigerian workers, generally, deserve to be motivated in the spirit of achieving the desire of Democracy as a goal in attending to the welfare of the people through justice and equity for peace and sustainable development.
The calculation of the unions is that, with the fast approaching general elections, most especially as it concerns those who intend to retain themselves in power, government may expectedly bow down to their pressure, but without curbing the wastages in government spending and regularizing the salary packages in the country to be without too much of a gap between political office holders and civil servants, it would be difficult for government to accede to the demands of trade unions.
Structurally, Nigeria's socio-economic and political scenes have been dysfunctional for any government to perform well and meet up with addressing the plight of the masses.
Integrity is a moral challenge in our democratic dispensation and Nigeria has been misruled over the years, to the extent that the core values have been eroded.
At the spiritual scene, Nigerians are hypocrites, dining with the devil, but deceiving themselves by hiding under the cover of religion.
When people without conscience get into power, all equations and formula, political, economic and mathematical, would surely, fail, making governance to impoverish, rather than build the people.
This will continue to lead to building strong individuals through corrupt enrichment with consequent fall out of weak institutions that would always add to the burden of the masses.
The present government as well as the opposition are one and the same and will remain impervious to the plight of the masses, in the face of indecisive unions, excerpt we are all out to make sacrifices for Nigeria, to be able to build it and give it to the youth as an enduring legacy.
All arms of government, the Executive, Judiciary and the Legislature, as well as the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, must act according to their functional mandates and decide to build a virile nation.
When workers are motivated aright, productivity would be enhanced into a higher Gross Domestic Product for appreciable human development index.
Let us all submit ourselves for assessment and evaluation through the Corporate Governance Perception Index.
By this, the true statistics of our situation would be transparently mapped our for government to be able to make amends in the weak areas.
There is a need for government and the labour unions to strike a balance between their demand of N65,000 and government's present minimum wage which had put Nigeria as one of the most poverty ridden nations, in the eyes of the international community.
Dialogue failure at this time, may be very disastrous to the economic activities of the nation. Government must stop toying with the lives of the masses in Nigeria.
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