THE current leadership of organised labour in Nigeria has obviously steered the Nigerian labour movement away from where it should and heading it to a completely new direction where it ought to never be – a jungle. At the moment, the Nigerian labour space has assumed a wildlife dimension, where every morning, the weakest gazelle must run faster than the strongest lion for it to survive. I sincerely believe that today’s set of leaders of organised labour came into office with a predetermined mission to not only fulfil just their personal interests but also to lay it to eternal peace.
But the fundamental question is: how long are we going to continue to tread on this crooked path and reprehensible behaviour that is definitely not in the DNA of trade unionism? A man who cannot add value to a system will end up destroying it; so we are also told. How are we sure that there is a future for the NLC, for organised labour, and indeed for the broad labour movement, going by the murmurings and the feeling of pervasive despondence among workers and the masses of Nigerians? For, in the imagination of substantial portion of the Nigerian population today, the NLC is no longer alive or if alive, in a deep coma or slumber. This is obviously because the Congress seems to be very much comfortable with the hostile and anti-people policies of government, to which it episodically respond in press statements.
Here we are where a central labour organisation that is supposed to broker truce amongst its warring factions in the affiliate unions and unify them to focus on the struggle for eternal vigilance over their class enemies, but is busy visibly promoting disorder by aligning with inordinate ambitions.
For instance, in our union, the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE), there sits a primitive, fascist, despotic maximum President, Lateef Idowu Oyelekan, who has not only become a cancer to the union but also monumental disgrace to the entire labour movement. Oyelekan has continued in this inglorious descent into ignominy because the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to which our beleaguered NUFBTE is affiliated seems entrapped in bed with wicked and crooked affiliate leaders.
The predominant feeling among majority of the rank and file members of our union is that the members of Congress leadership are very much comfortably at home and at peace with injustice, unfairness and inequity. By the nuances of their politics, even a few discerning members of staff at the NLC national secretariat, as confided in us, now have a means of detecting or measuring the rationale or motives behind actions of the leadership, most often dictated by personal interests, a situation totally alien to the altruistic and collective tradition of the NLC since its founding, as we were told as young trade unionists.
But the fundamental question is: how long are we going to continue to tread on this crooked path and reprehensible behaviour that is definitely not in the DNA of trade unionism? A man who cannot add value to a system will end up destroying it; so we are also told. How are we sure that there is a future for the NLC, for organised labour, and indeed for the broad labour movement, going by the murmurings and the feeling of pervasive despondence among workers and the masses of Nigerians? For, in the imagination of substantial portion of the Nigerian population today, the NLC is no longer alive or if alive, in a deep coma or slumber. This is obviously because the Congress seems to be very much comfortable with the hostile and anti-people policies of government, to which it episodically respond in press statements.
We pray that Comrade Ayuba Wabba will not be the last President of NLC! We pray that the NLC will endure his leadership so that in less than a year when his tenure expires, Nigerian workers will still be conscious enough to elect a President and other leaders with the requisite discernment and activism to revive NLC’s irrepressible form and substance increasingly diminished largely by ego and personal aggrandisement, and which has inexorably created tin gods and multiple factions within and amongst affiliates.
The next President of the Congress, if correctly and discernibly elected, will have the herculean task of rebuilding and recovering the confidence of the broad movement, and of course, that of the generality of Nigerians, in the Congress. It must not be a Congress that, today, has become not only an affiliate of some industrial unions but also an instrument of trade and bargain at the expense of workers. A typical example of downgrading NLC is in the strong tie between the NLC and the illegal President of Food Union, Comrade Oyelekan, who dictates the tunes to which the NLC unabashedly dances.
A ‘sick’ and badly governed nation like Nigeria needs a virile and vibrant labour and civil society. Even the strong synergy between NLC and its civil society allies has been rubbished by an insensitive style of leadership that is sadly conceptually primitive and shallow, short-sighted and with false assumptions of being erudite and cosmopolitan.
With less than one year for the present leadership to leave office, there are rumours of plans, in the face of already weakened organs of Congress, to pave the way for the installation of a leader who will be a lackey of the current leadership. There is no doubt that if this ambition is allowed to be realised, the hope of any redemption soon will be substantially diminished and perhaps, forever forgotten.
The pump prices of petroleum products have not only gone far beyond the reach of Nigerians, the products are not even available. Where available in filling stations, motorists queue for hours to buy petrol which sells far above two hundred naira per litre in many parts of the country. In the black market where petrol is permanently available, a litre sells as from three hundred naira per litre. A litre of diesel and kerosene now goes for between seven hundred to eight hundred naira. The price of cooking gas too has more than doubled since December.
Our university system is in grave distress due to the lackadaisical attitude of government in responding to collectively bargained agreement(s) with ASUU. Nigerians are paying so much for electricity that is neither consumed nor available. Politicians are busy looting. Our democracy is producing more looters. Nigerians are heavily groaning under the weight of hardship that Buhari administration has unleashed on us. One can easily see the scar of hardship etched on the faces of Nigerians. Congress leadership has turned labour into what Fela called a zombie organisation. In the face of all these viciously provocative maladies, NLC is not even pretending to be peeved as to call for a street engagement that will send a message to the government that people are actually dying and that it should sit up.
Before NLC earlier in the year suspended its planned mass protests against the planned increase in petrol price and electricity tariff, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) led by Comrade Quadri Olaleye, withdrew from the noose or yoke of collaboration. The truth of the matter is that Wabba and his General Secretary have made the Congress appear unattractive to any credible alliance and collaboration – whether civil society or the TUC. The simple truth is that comrades no longer have confidence in the Congress leadership. Wabba and his cohorts may not know, the reality is that even employees of the Congress have lost confidence in his leadership.
If we have committed leaders at the helm of the NLC, the wickedness of supposed leaders like Oyelekan will never be condoned. Oyelekan has told us repeatedly that the people he feeds cannot wage war against him. Who are the people that he is feeding? Is NLC leadership among them? We have details of the involvement of leaders of Congress benefitting from our oppression, some pretending to be neutral, while others already have their sleeves rolled up. That is the sad tragedy of our situation; that we have descended to a level where institutions that are supposed to moderate the activities of trade unions are neck deep in awkward relationships due to personal desires.
The next President of the Congress, if correctly and discernibly elected, will have the herculean task of rebuilding and recovering the confidence of the broad movement, and of course, that of the generality of Nigerians, in the Congress. It must not be a Congress that, today, has become not only an affiliate of some industrial unions but also an instrument of trade and bargain at the expense of workers. A typical example of downgrading NLC is in the strong tie between the NLC and the illegal President of Food Union, Comrade Oyelekan, who dictates the tunes to which the NLC unabashedly dances.
The NLC leadership that will emerge after this should understand the burden of its history, its historic roles and responsibilities to workers, the masses and the nation alike. As we speak; about 80 per cent of workers in banks and insurance companies are casual workers. Outsourcing has taken over the traditional employment method that we know in the Food Sector, and of course, many sectors of the economy. Some of the outsourcing firms are owned by labour leaders; the same people who are supposed to protect workers rights and welfare. Many serving labour leaders are key advisers to employers on retrenchment and casualisation. After such retrenchment, the spaces created are filled with casual labour. Casual labour has become the in-thing in the economy.
If we have committed leaders at the helm of the NLC, the wickedness of supposed leaders like Oyelekan will never be condoned. Oyelekan has told us repeatedly that the people he feeds cannot wage war against him. Who are the people that he is feeding? Is NLC leadership among them? We have details of the involvement of leaders of Congress benefitting from our oppression, some pretending to be neutral, while others already have their sleeves rolled up. That is the sad tragedy of our situation; that we have descended to a level where institutions that are supposed to moderate the activities of trade unions are neck deep in awkward relationships due to personal desires.
The leadership of Congress believes we are people of low estate and do not have the nerves to cause mayhem like members of NURTW, as such our cries should be ignored but the same leadership rose with alacrity to the rescue of bourgeois labour counterparts in NURTW. This is a leadership that has never been able to settle any disagreement in any of its affiliate unions. Its trademark incompetence and lack of righteous courage to do what is right is gradually depreciating organised labour, and if not managed well soon, it may translate to irretrievable decline; the same challenge that we are facing in Nigeria today. Everybody wants Nigeria to be like countries overseas, but no one is doing what is right. Where will our salvation come from?
Comrade Amechi is a member of Redemption Group, a faction of NUFBTE.
