The Union is Dead, Long Live the Establishment

Nseobong Okon-Ekong laments the upsetting set of circumstances that Nigerian workers are perpetually confronted with

On the two occasions that he campaigned for the office of President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari made no promises to workers. If he did, it was perfunctory and lost in the cacophony of dancing and music and abuses against political opponents that usually characterise the planned riotous action to engage the voting public by political parties. Nigerian workers really have nothing to hold this administration down to. And that is a sad commentary on the state of active attention exhibited by the leadership of Nigerian workers. There is no gainsaying that the Ayuba Wabba-led Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is the most docile and compromised ever. It has largely failed to be watchful and prompt to meet danger or emergency. In many instances, it has not been quick to perceive and act on behalf of workers.

In matters of politics, it is not as if the NLC is totally handicapped. After all, it formed the Labour Party in 2002 as the party for social democracy. But when its seemingly brightest political prospect, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, former President of the NLC and former Governor of Edo State turned his back against the very platform that brought him into national prominence, the stage was set for the gradual dethronement of Labour. Oshiomhole has shown himself to be the brightest bulb in the box, criticising others but lacking the capacity to stomach criticism. So far, Labour’s happiest day has been the emergence of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko as governor of Ondo State, between February 2009 and February 2017 on the ticket of the Labour Party. Like Oshiomhole before him, Mimiko was only a fair weather friend of Nigerian workers. As soon as his tenure was over, he joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but later dealt Labour its most injurious stab in the back by forming the Zenith Labour Party, another political party that shared similar ideology as the Labour Party and fished in the same pond for members. Unfortunately, the registered political vehicle of Nigeria workers has been largely available to persons who they cannot rely on in times of difficulty.

And that is why successive administrations, since the turn of the current political dispensation have been making life harder for Nigerian workers. The abandonment of Nigerian workers is apparent as there is nobody who is ready to stand up for their cause.

While the longest general strike in Nigerian history is the 44-day strike of 1945, in which 17 labour unions and over 200,000 workers participated, we are still counting the lost man-hour resulting from the number of staggered days of strike embarked on by various workers union since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed power. Before this season of frequent and enduring strikes, you could predict the workers group that was most likely to down tools. Not any more! For over two months, the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) embarked on a nationwide strike in protest of the nonimplementation of financial autonomy for the judiciary. Parliamentary staff also stayed away from work to press home demands for better conditions of service. These were unprecedented!

Certain category of workers hitherto considered to be on essential duty including staff of electricity agencies have shut down their services at one time or another, largely due to refusal of their employers to keep their part of a bargain, which is usually the result of a long and exhaustive negotiations. The Nigerian worker has been systematically emasculated and left on his own as institutions of state come up with stiffer policies at the expense of workers.

The Buhari administration may have increased minimum wage to N30,000 per month, but increase in utility tariffs and astronomical cost of living have made nonsense of the new pay package. Many state governors have arm twisted their workers into a take-it-or-leave-it pay, lower than the national minimum or refused to pay all together.

The Buhari administration will be remembered for refusing to protect the rights, safety and economic welfare of workers, while also preventing workers from protecting their own interest through collective bargaining, thus giving Labour and Employment Minister, Dr. Chris Ngige, a bad name.

NLC is an umbrella organisation for trade unions in Nigeria. It was founded in 1978, when the military government of the Head of State, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, forced a merger of four different organisations: Nigeria Trade Union Congress, NTUC; Labour Unity Front, LUF; United Labour Congress, ULC; and Nigeria Workers Council, The numerous affiliated unions were restructured into 42 industrial unions. Its founding President was Wahab Goodluck. NLC has had various clashes with the government especially on salaries, reduced subsidies and plans to deregulate some sectors of the economy. The last national strike which NLC embarked upon which crippled the nation was on January, 2, 2012 when the union joined other sociopolitical groups to protest then President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to remove subsidy on petroleum products. The action lasted 12 days.

Workers’ rights encompass a large array of human rights from the right to decent work and freedom of association to equal opportunity and protection against discrimination. Specific rights related to the workplace include health and safety in the workplace and the right to privacy at work, amongst many others. Nigerian labour law looks into the rights, working conditions, minimum wage, termination clauses, and many other rules set by the government of Nigeria. The current version of the act was put into place in 2004, five years after their current constitution was established. That means there is nothing in the 1999 (as amended) that speaks to the rights of the Nigerian worker. Out of the 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives, none of them has attempted to champion workers rights, largely because most of them are guilty of trampling on the rights of their employees.

In an article published on jstor.org, ‘StrikesThe Law and the Institutionalization of Labour Protest in Nigeria ‘ by A. A. Adeogun, the writer explains the workings of the Nigerian industrial relations system. According to him, it “adheres to the principle of free and voluntary collective bargaining, which implies that the right of workers to strike constitutes one of its essential elements. But the author observes that, ironically perhaps, this right is nowhere positively and expressly protected in the law. In fact, strike action by workers will be visited with severe punishment. The author suggests that if collective bargaining is to take firm root in Nigeria, the government must restrict its intervention in the field of industrial relations to one of laying down broad policy guidelines. He also counsels the unions to put their houses in order and to effectively control the activities of the militant few who succeed in stampeding the moderate majority into taking industrial actions even when the employer is genuinely anxious to reach a settlement.”

Democracy in the workplace is a mirage for the Nigerian worker. Time was when the maximum period that employers could hire on temporary basis was three months. Now, even the government itself condones casual staff, thus opening the door for scandalous period of casualization in the banking, shipping, security, oil and gas and other sectors of the economy. It is so bad that nearly half of the entire work force of an organisation may be casual staff in buccaneering system that promotes Labour contractors, who collect the maximum payment per staff supplied, but turn around to offer the most indecent pay to the hapless worker.

This is the last quarter of 2021, a year that will be noted in Nigeria, among other things for multiple disruptions in the workplace. A larger workers’ crisis is still looming large, but this can be avoided with a purposeful attempt on the part of employers-both in the private and public sector-to allow the processes that promote genuine and mutually beneficial reconciliation. The larger implications of this for our democracy is too profound to be ignored.

The Nigerian worker has been systematically emasculated and left on his own as institutions of state come up with stiffer policies at the expense of workers.The Buhari administration may have increased minimum wage to N30,000 per month, but increase in utility tariffs and astronomical cost of living have made nonsense of the new pay package. Many state governors have arm twisted their workers into a takeit-or-leave-it pay, lower than the national minimum or refused to pay all together