By Iduh Onah
ASIDE the historic import of the public presentation of the ‘abridged’ history of the struggles of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the associated commentaries and ceremonial framings on Monday, September 19, 2022 at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, was also the loud manifestation of the ideological binaries that over time set apart, and indeed, sustained the Nigerian trade union cum labour movement; and this symbolically defined the day. First is the binary of courage and power of rhetoric, while the second is commitment and moral authority of labour leaders.
These qualities, epitomised in the remarks of Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, Pioneer President of NLC, and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the 4th President of NLC, and to some degree, the short goodwill message by Comrade Festus Osifo, the President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), logically deserve profound interrogation.
Sunmonu, still pioneering
Comrade Sunmonu, though in his early eighties, remains physically agile and intellectually incisive without any iota of relapse in his mental acuity as he articulates the ideological tendency that has defined his life-long commitment to the movement.
For Sunmonu, writing the history of the NLC is as profound and heroic as the struggle itself so as to preserve workers long and arduous history struggle for survival and emancipation. He rendered this very aptly in an existential metaphor ingrained in African lore. “Until the lions decide to write their own history, only the history of the hunter would be known,” Sunmonu said, capping his emotion with declarative appreciation: “I am grateful to God that at almost 82 years, I am alive to witness this day and see this epoch-making ceremony.”
The elder statesman did not end there, he proceeded to, without any sign of the fragility that comes with his age, re-enact his trademark combative, activist trajectory of unionism, labelling the Nigerian ruling elite as leaders without moral authority.
“Most Nigerian politicians,” Sunmonu states, “always forget the role that workers and trade unions have played in the process for the struggle of Nigeria’s independence, and even after independence because to them, they are in power but how they come to power and the responsibilities of power is not their concern, and that is our own concern.”
According to him, Nigeria has huge potentials that counts for nothing for the citizens because of the rapacious character of the ruling class. “Nigeria has a lot of potentials, but nobody eats potential until potentials are converted to into tangible activities that can benefit the people and the country.
“We have oil, we have gas – and these two internationally priced commodities – are they benefiting Nigeria today? Nigeria is the only OPEC country that still imports it refined petrol, is that not true? Sunmonu asks rhetorically, and vibrating visibly in the process, as he also emphasised: “Four refineries that are moribund! Ghana has only one refinery. As Secretary General of Organisation of African Trade Union Unity and living in Accra for 26 years, there was never, ever any fuel shortage in Ghana and they have only one refinery, Tema Refinery; we have four, and we are still buying petrol from abroad.
“We don’t even know how much petroleum we are producing but they tell us how much petrol they are stealing. Who are they people, the thieves, stealing our petrol? They know them but they are not arresting them, we have security, they are not arresting the thieves, why? They [leaders] are the worst people who lack moral authority. They day a man loses moral authority, he has lost everything; they day the wife catches her husband on bed with another woman is the day that husband loses moral authority, and vice versa.”
Comrade Sunmonu did not stop there; he also spoke on the ongoing struggle by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and unequivocally condemned the duplicity of government.
“Our university lecturers have been on strike for over 7 months and they don’t feel concerned. I took part as conciliator of ASUU in the negotiations. If you negotiate, the result of negotiation will be implemented. The Holy Bible said so; the Holy Quran has said so! Why is it different in this particular case? How can; anywhere in the world, where vice-chancellors have to ask of the permission of the Head of Service before they recruit a professor except Nigeria? Name any university in the world where to pay professors and lecturers, it has to be from the Accountant General’s office. Where anywhere in the world anything akin to IPPIS is been foisted on any university?
“Why should a senior lecturer earn the same salary as a sergeant in the army? It is only in Nigeria!… They come with their so-called IPPIS because they want to save money and yet an individual went away with, looting more than 190 billion naira. The even went to the social media to say that the President of ASUU’s daughter had graduated from one university abroad and Prof Osedeke has no female child. That is the extent to which our politicians have degenerated; I am appalled! How can the chairman of a local government council earn more than a professor except in Nigeria?” the pioneer President of NLC cried, as he also relived the protracted struggles against Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and other neo-liberal battles waged by the labour movement.
Oshiomhole’s queries
Though he was measured and deliberate in the broad outline of his remark, Comrade Oshiomhole, who is now strongly rooted in both the labour movement and the ruling class circles, fired from the hips at both labour and government establishments.
His first salvo was at the NLC leadership which queried for its failure to invite to sit on the podium all former presidents of the NLC while a former minister and other government functionaries dominated the high table.
Oshiomhole was not also happy that the programme of the event celebrating the history of the movement does not feature the portraits of former presidents of the Congress but instead those of government functionaries. For Oshiomhole, this is a sin that is unreflective of the tradition of the labour movement globally.
“I think that on a day like this; this is a labour day; this is not a government day. I think that if we had a former labour minister [Emeka Wogu] on the high table, all former NLC presidents should be on the high table, because we are talking about the history of the Nigeria Labour Congress.
“When I look at the programme and I see the photograph of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, I see that of the Vice President, I see that of Labour Minister; I want to see the picture of the founding President of the NLC that we are celebrating. There are young people who are here, who are not forty, and don’t know if Hassan Sunmonu was [the pioneer] president. Allow me to say this because we also must do self-reviews…, when government organises its events…, when Ngige organises a programme, he will not put NLC president’s picture in the programme there; so we have to know when it is our own programme, educate our own people, that is the truth. I think that the younger ones must understand the tradition of the movement.
“The FES Resident Representative that is here; if the German DGB is organising a programme, they won’t put the German Chancellor. The TUC will not put, even if it is the Labour Party government, they won’t put the Labour Prime Minister. They [government] don’t do it to us [trade unions]; if they don’t do it to us, why do we do it to them?
“I think that for the purpose of this history, all our past president’s ought to be there [in the programme]. The struggle was led before we came in and it will still be there. After this year, the current President [Ayuba Wabba] will not be president; another president will come and his name will fade off. So, I think if we are to put any photograph, I think it should be all the past presidents [of NLC],” Comrade Oshiomhole stressed.
In what could be interpreted as a satirical commentary on the prevailing situation in the labour movement, Comrade Oshiomhole told the fully parked audience his recent experience from an encounter with a Nigerian who had wanted him to share his experience of being on both sides of the ideological divide.
“Somebody asked me three weeks ago that with the benefit of hindsight now that you have seen the other side, if you were still the president of NLC, how will you react to situations like this looking at what you did when you were in NLC? My answer is this: “…I said from what I know now, having been governor of a state and having served in government and sat with ministries, not on the other side, on the same table, I am much more convinced that I ought to have even fought harder, and if I am the NLC President today, I will fight even harder,” says Oshiomhole, stressing that “what is constant is the interest of our country.”
According to Oshiomhole, he “cannot be progressive or chair a progressive [political] party if I do not believe that there are sides in society.” He said for him, “government is an act of bias” and therefore “nothing objective about governance,” because “you choose consciously who benefits from government policies. Every policy has winners and it has losers. You are complaining now about N600, N700, N800 for a litre of diesel; are those selling it complaining; and you think that there is a diesel consumer bragging about that? I am not going to join you to organise a strike but if you do, I will not protest against you,” Oshiomhole said to the applause of the audience.
According to Oshiomhole, his loyalty is to the movement that produced him and that even if he was to become the President of the UN, he will still be loyal to the labour movement.
“When you organised the protest over minimum wage with the former Senate President, David Mark, I was a sitting governor with all the protection I had, but I said my first constituency to which I will always be loyal regardless of whether I became the President of the United Nations is the movement that produced me. I am not a coward; if I was a coward, I won’t be removed the way I was as chairman of APC! I have deep convictions. At 18, I started fighting, at 70, you think I am afraid of anyone?” Oshiomhole asks rhetorically.
He further stated: “We build trade unions not to lament, not to agonise the way speakers after speakers were agonising! We built the movement to stop agonising and start organising! If you agonise, who told you what is happening is happening out of ignorance? Government is about interests; they know nothing has one direction; there is inner fighting in every government, including this one [Buhari government].
“I am conscious that there are ministers here, and they know as Chairman of APC, I have strong views. I fought [Dr Chris] Ngige [Minister of Labour and Employment] when he refused to swear in [Comrade Frank] Kokori [as Chairman of the Board of NSITF]; is that not? And I said if I had the power, I would discipline him; I have no regrets; as chairman of the party, I said that! The privileges of the office are not enough for me to forget my background, so read history, and that is why this book is important; because, a lot of the younger people who are under 40 in this room, they won’t know how Sunmonu was fighting and telling us that it is better to die speaking the truth because death will come when it will come. I was inspired by his courage as a younger union leader, then as General Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Textile and Garment Workers.”
In the 30 minutes and some seconds that he spoke, Oshiomhole gave a narrative suggestive of docility on the part of NLC and called for greater activism, resistance and interventions by organised labour in the political economy of Nigeria.
“What makes us different as labour leaders is that if you are grounded, there is nothing in life that will make you change; change for what? I said that day, and lamented the fact that even on our national television; go and playback what I said that day on national television and newspapers, the fact that the children of the poor are at home is not featuring on conversations in television; it is all about politics; who is rigging election, who wins primary, didn’t win primary; but that everybody has at a least a child at home and that fact is not in the conversation, and I said this is wrong! It is not an act of God; we have to fix it; it is not about lamenting it.
“I was involved, the late President Yar’Adua of blessed memory invited me as the Governor of Edo State that time but taking into account the fact of my background to help midwife the agreement between ASUU and federal government; so that 2009 agreement, check, I was the chief mediator, and I said in that my speech that I don’t understand what the issues were. So let none of you think that what I was doing was because I was hungry or because I didn’t have time to Excellency, I refused to carry it…
“I want us to, in moments like this do the hard talk and speak truth to power without fear or favour, because Sunmonu told us, you speak the truth, when death will come, it will come; you choose to lie and keep quiet, when death will come, it will come. But there is a difference, those who die speaking the truth will go to heaven and those who die lying will go to hell! That’s what the Bible said; what are you afraid of?” Oshiomhole asks of labour leaders, stating that ‘what is constant is the truth!
Osifo on the tradition of resistance
The new President of the Trade Union Congress, Comrade Festus Osifo, in his goodwill message, was frank and blunt in condemning the federal government over the lingering ASUU strike.
He began his remark by commending the NLC for its resolve to tell the story of the labour movement in Nigeria. According to him, labour is indivisible and with one objective. “For us, the objective of the labour movement is one and it is not divisible. The objective is very clear: how do we protect the jobs of our members and how do we enhance their pays; that is the basic objective of every meaningful labour movement anywhere in the world. Today, NLC has told its story how it all started in the colonial era, how it metamorphosed to the post-colonial era.”
Comrade Osifo recalled that trade unionism is essential for resistance against oppressive policies, which had in the past been a potent weapon that had brought down entrenched racist policies in a company in Port Harcourt.
“Comrades, I just wish to tell us and bring our memory to two or three issues that have happened in the past. There was a particular company in Port Harcourt, an oil and gas company. In this company several years ago, there was this very big and beautiful canteen and that canteen was divided into two; one side for the expatriates, the other side for Nigerians. If you are a Nigerian, even if you are a manager and you dare walk into the expatriates’ side to eat, your job will be terminated.
“It was the labour movement sometime in the ’90s that said no, you cannot continuously subject us to this slavery even in our home. There came that particular day and they brought down the wall and as we speak today, thank God, it’s gone,” Osifo recounted.
The second illustration, Osifo said, also occurred in the same oil company. “In this particular company I talked about, they have a building, a five-storey building, and in this five-storey building, there was a lift that was so small because the number of expatriates working in that company was very tiny compared to the number of Nigerians, but as a Nigerian working in that company, you dare not enter that lift, if you do, your job is gone for good. It was only for expatriates who used the lift.
“This was the practice for several years until that fateful day in 1992 when comrades came together and said enough is enough! They all mustered in front of that lift and all the expatriates that came there that day were all asked to go home. They brought soldiers and arrested several of them and took them to military camp where they spent three to four days, but immediately they were released, they all came back to that lift again and by the end of the day, they rendered the lift unfunctional. They told them [management] that the lift will be down and that everybody must continue to climb to the top floor of the building. That is the power of the struggle,” Osifo said.
For Osifo, the Nigerian worker has been ‘suppressed’, ‘oppressed’ and ‘subjugated’ to a level that “today, our minimum wage is less than 50 dollars a month.”
He noted that the current 30-thousand-naira minimum wage has completely become useless as against the time it was negotiated. “You and I will recall that as at that time, 30 thousand naira was somewhere around 90 dollars, but today due to the mismanagement of the entire economy, you could recall that the serial devaluation, whether it is the CBN rate or whether it is the parallel market rate, you will realise that the 30 thousand naira approved in 2019 as a minimum wage, today, the value has completely been eroded. Today, that 30 thousand naira cannot even pay your transport to work. Any system that doesn’t place value on its workforce can never progress,” he stated.
He challenged the government to go beyond mouthing the value of its citizens and translate it to tangible benefits for them. “It is too bad that on a daily basis that our greatest assets are our people, but it is not by mouthing it, it is not saying it, it is not by talk, talk, talk; it is by what? Action!”
Comrade Osifo also spoke on the ASUU strike and condemned government’s no-work-no-pay policy. He said: “Comrades, our brothers, our sisters, our children have been at home for several months. What is actually the reason? They [ASUU] signed an agreement with the government several years ago. The agreement has not been implemented and the same government, over the years, starting from 2009 to date, that did not actually implement the agreement is saying that ASUU is not ready to work and has implemented the no-work-no-pay.
“We should all recognise the power of agreement, and when you cannot implement, you should be the first that will come and say let’s renegotiate but for you to wait for the people to cry, to continuously reach out to you over the years and are still crying out and at the end of the day, we are where we are today.
“We have said as a people that if government wills, it could resolve the dispute. The Minister of Finance came a few days ago and said that by the end of the year, we would have spent about 6.3 trillion naira paid for fuel subsidy. We therefore ask the government to take that fuel subsidy money and probe it because we are questioning the volume you said we are consuming. If they should probe it and sell that extra volume, I can tell you that the money we are going to realise from that can send back ASUU back to classroom tomorrow.”
Ngige, threading the unfeeling path
If there were any indicators of the unfeeling character of the Nigerian ruling class towards the working class, and trust deficit that exist between citizens and political leadership of the country, they clearly manifested when it was the turn of Dr Chris Ngige to make his remarks.
First, when he was introduced as Minister of Labour and Employment, the audience unanimously re-designated him as Minister of Labour and ‘Unemployment’. Secondly, throughout his about 23 minutes remarks, much of which he dedicated to explaining government position on the ASUU-FG dispute, the audience continue to counterpose and interrogate him.
For instance, when Ngige revealed that plans are underway to increase the N30,000 minimum wage in the light of global inflation ravaging national economies, it was met with a smug interrogative response from the audience, who asked: ‘when, when? to the disappointment of the Minister who perhaps had expected jubilation.
While Ngige’s interface with workers concretised the distance and frosty relationship between the led and a dubious political leadership, it also more eloquently symbolised the book’s thematic rendition.
The Book
Although suffused with quality discourse and rhetoric typical of trade union gathering, and episodically moderated by hilarious banters between Dr Ngige and Comrade Oshiomhole, the highpoint of the ceremony was the book review and unveiling.
Particularly notable in the book review by Prof Dafe Otobo of the University of Lagos was the acknowledgement of the authors – John Odah, Onah Iduh, Benson Upah and Salisu Muhammad.
Ironically, throughout the event up to that point, neither the NLC President, in his welcome address, nor the General Secretary of NLC, in his vote of thanks, or any other principal officer of the NLC noted the oddity of not acknowledging the authors for the work being celebrated. While this may look like an oversight, it was a conscious decision of the leadership for whatever reason, as the secretariat was forced to officially invite the authors after one of them had to write a protest letter.
But as an academic of repute and one who naturally values intellect and brainwork, Prof Otobo began the review by recognising the modest efforts of the authors in scripting the first history of the NLC.
Read Prof Otobo’s review here.
