Following the November 1 Joe Ajaero assault and battery in Owerri, Imo State, the two Labour centres, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), threatened a national shutdown from November 14, if their Imo demands were not met.
On November 10, Justice Benedict Kanyip, the sitting judge on the ex-parte request against the threatened strike, which the Federal Government had brought to the National Industrial Court (NIC), ordered that the strike be put off, until all parties argued their cause before the court.
Justice Kanyip, who is also the president of NIC, ruled: “An order of interim injunction is hereby made restraining the defendants/respondents, their members, their agents, employees, workmen, servants, proxies or affiliates from embarking on the planned industrial action and of strike of any nature, pending the hearing and determination of the claimant/applicant’s motion on notice for interlocutory injunctions.”
The NIC warned that there would be consequences should the order be disobeyed.
The strike went on anyway, with NLC/TUC grounding the country for two days, though compliance levels differed from place to place. Festus Osifo, TUC president and arrow head of the strike, bragged that Labour was shunning the order because the government also always does. Also recall that Ajaero’s Imo attack followed the NLC shunting aside an NIC order.
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It’s good that Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser (NSA), intervened for Labour to call off the strike. It’s also good that the NSA apologized to Labour for Ajaero’s beating. It’s even better and re-assuring that those allegedly behind Ajaero’s thumping have been arrested, while investigations continue. Rule of law! Due process!
The same due process should now shift to both Ajaero and Osifo. The NIC should summon both to explain their disobedience of its clear order, even with even a clearer caveat for sanctions.
As Ajaero was thrashed in Owerri by those who like the victim took laws into their hands, the Federal Government could have rolled out legit force to enforce the NIC order; and many striking workers could have been in harm’s way. That the Federal Government didn’t take laws in own hands, as Labour did, deserves praise.
That is why Ajaero and Osifo must explain their actions to NIC. If the court feels they are justified, fine. Otherwise, they should face sanctions for that outlawry. That is rule of law and due process.
We cannot lash against a lawless government but tolerate a lawless Labour. Organized Labour cannot contemn the law that gives it lawful privilege to disrupt people’s investments, in pushing the right of its members.
It’s time NIC put its foot down — and firmly too. You can’t repay legal rights with brazen anarchy, as Labour, under Ajaero and Osifo, has been doing.