NIGERIA’S labour movement is surely in a state of intellectual crisis. The leadership of the leading associations of workers in the country needs both moral and intellectual revival. Even if one is inclined to think that the obvious moral deficiency that current labour leaders exhibit demands more immediate attention than any other matter that puts a question mark on their relevance to the life and plight of the Nigerian worker, their manifest display of intellectual vacuity might be more demanding of urgent amelioration than anything else. I say this even when it could be reasonably assumed that today’s labour leaders have far better formal education and exposure than their predecessors from earlier generations’. Labour movement in a peaceful demonstration against PMS price hike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress and some of the affiliates on the streets of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida The above-quoted passage was the opening paragraph of a piece entitled ‘Labour’s new minimum wage demand: maximum trouble’.
It’s exactly two weeks ago today that those words were published here in this space. Yet, anyone could think they were written in the wake of the last weekend decision of the Nigerian Labour Congress to suspend the nationwide strike it declared exactly a week ago. That strike suffered a stillbirth. Although it took the NLC four clear days to come to any full acknowledgment of the futility of the fool’s errand it had imposed upon itself, the strike itself had been dead even before it was so declared having been prompted by thoughtless flexing of muscles. Not only was the strike option a clear misreading of the national mood. It was at once also a signal reflection of the absence of intellectual rigour that I alluded to in the quote above about the conduct of the NLC leadership and its knee-jerk response to an issue that a little thoughtfulness could have made unnecessary. One is not by this saying that the government was right to make life more difficult for Nigerians by way of increase in price of Premium Motor Spirit. That’s far from it. Everyone knows how much ordinary Nigerians have had to sacrifice, even as they are the people often made to carry the can of the outcome of corruption caused by series of inept leadership over our past independence years.
Indeed, nobody is saying that a strike wouldn’t have been necessary in similar circumstances at other times. But right now the situation Nigerians are faced with demands proper management and the cooperation of all. This is no time for irresponsible grandstanding which the labour movement in Nigeria seems to have perfected to the level of an art form. Even when government seems to have showed bad faith, as labour alleges, by its procurement of a court order that stopped the latter’s planned strike, the labour leaders could still have shown better judgment by exploring all available avenues of resolution, making strike the very last option.
But long given to meaningless gestures than substance of action or thought, and apparently in a testy mood to punish the government for agreeing to sit down with and discuss the fuel price issue with a faction it considered a distraction to its claim to the leadership of Nigeria’s labour movement, the Ayuba Wabba faction of the NLC hastily took the decision to strike even when it was clear that Nigerians had not been sufficiently mobilised to say nothing of their being in the mood for any aggravation of the already grim state of deprivation that a prolonged period of strike would invariably mean. While the labour leaders get feted and appear to feather their own nests while claiming to fight on behalf of the people, ordinary Nigerians have virtually nothing, at least nothing of lasting value, to claim as the benefits of strike actions declared by labour. This last strike was a flop. One couldn’t think of any situation in recent memory during which labour suffers loss of face to the degree it did with its failed strike this past week. That disgrace was not inevitable.
But labour was just too intellectually lazy to think beyond proffering old solutions to old problems in changed circumstances. Labour was out to seek its own pleasure rather than the pleasure of the majority of Nigerians. Had it been thinking of Nigerians it wouldn’t have been too eager to go on strike. It would have thought of the added pain that a lockdown of the country would mean to a people obviously suffering from the fatigue of industrial actions. The unrelenting state of harassment under which Nigerians have lived without petrol, water, light and food in the past many months would not make them want to take on the huge burden of being forced to stay at home any further. Unlike the labour leaders, many Nigerians would have no food to put on their table if they don’t go to their places of buying and selling. The Buhari government which next week would be marking its first year in power should not confuse the disregard Nigerians showed to labour’s strike misstep as an unqualified vote in its leadership. Nigerians want to see positive changes in their lives beyond the campaign sloganeering of the All Progressives Congress. The government may not be this lucky next time around.
Which is why it should not fritter away the opportunity that labour’s gaffe presents it to rise to the occasion and bring about the desired change in the lives of the people of this country. Yes, this was not 2012 when a similar increase in fuel price brought the people out on the streets in their hundreds of thousands. O yes, it seems eons ago when oil sold at above $130 per barrel. Indeed, we have long moved beyond that time when presidential subordinates could just sit down somewhere and share out huge sums of money to different people in the name of funding a party’s campaign. The fight against corruption may be on in full steam but the people of this country are far from satisfied.
Nigerians have demonstrated their sagacity and informed apprehension of issues by choosing to show further sacrifice in the face of mounting troubles. They have chosen to forgo ‘oil subsidy’ for availability of fuel.
Now is the time for their leaders to reciprocate that gesture. Nigerians want, demand change but not of the variety that resides in mere rhetoric without the possibility of realisation. Unlike labour which is both out of step and out of tune with Nigerians, the Buhari administration should anticipate the desires of the people. It must go beyond projection or mere declaration of intent, its promised plan of change, to actual execution of change. It should look ahead and work harder to deflect any accretion of anger that unrealized hope might eventuate. A people who have had to forebear so much would at some point demand full recompense for their act of faith.
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