Category: Labour

By Toba Agboola

The World Bank has stated that Nigeria is facing an acute job crisis that puts pressure on irregular migration byNigerians, who are seeking to leave the country as a result of its working age population which is growing at an average rate of three per cent yearly.

The global bank made this known in its report entitled, “Of Roads Less Travelled: Assessing the Potential for Migration to Provide Overseas Jobs for Nigeria’s Youth”, published on its website, recently.

The report stated that between 2014 and last year, Nigeria’s working-age population increased from 102 million to 122 million, growing at an average rate of three per cent yearly.

“Nigeria is facing one of the most acute jobless crises in recent times. Between 2014 and 2020, Nigeria’s working age population grew from 102 million to 122 million, growing at an average rate of approximately three per cent per year,” the report said.

Similarly, Nigeria’s active labour force population, i.e., those who are able to work among the working age population, grew from 73 million in 2014 to 90 million in 2018.

According to the reports, since 2018, the active labour force population has dramatically decreased to about 70 million—lower than the level in 2014—while the number of Nigerians who are in the working-age population but not active in the labour force has increased from 29 million to 52 million between 2014 and last year.

The Washington-based institution added that the expanding working age with scarce employment opportunities is creating high rates of unemployment, particularly for  youths.

It also stated that there was a fivefold increase in the unemployment rate between 2010 and 2020, from 6.4 per cent in 2010 to 33.3 per cent last year.

The Bretton wood institution also added that the poor combination of the rising unemployment, booming demographics, and unfulfilled aspirations is increasing the pressure on young Nigerians to migrate in search of gainful employment overseas.

“Unemployment is considered to be a key driver of migration. The number of first-time asylum seekers from Sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria to Europe peaked in 2016, at the height of the European migration crisis, before subsiding in late-2017.

“Nigerians represented the largest group of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa to arrive in Europe in 2016 and 2017. Nearly 40,000 Nigerians arrived in Italy in 2016 with over 90 percent arriving via sea routes,” it said.

The report urged that by expanding legal pathways for migration and implementing supporting measures to reap dividends from current migrants in the diaspora, Nigeria can further benefit from international migration.

“Nigeria’s institutions are well-placed to promote managed migration approaches that help create opportunities for prospective jobseekers to find employment internationally and can be supported to help design schemes that increases the returns to human capital investments for youths.

“One consequence of inaction to the rising migratory pressure has been the increase in irregular migration to Europe which has resulted in Nigerian migrants facing not only higher economic costs but also physical and psychological abuse along the transit corridors in Niger and Libya,” the reports said.

The Association   of   Senior  Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has commended the management of the Federal Inland   Revenue   Service  (FIRS)   for   a   record   spike   in  revenue   generation last month.

In a statement in Abuja, the ASCSN National President,Comrade Tommy Etim Okon, and Secretary-General, Comrade Alade BashirLawal, expressed delight that the FIRS raked in a whopping amount last month.

“It is indeed remarkable that in spite of the economic meltdown occasioned by the ravages of COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Inland Revenue Service was able to generate more than N650 billion last month, the highest in one month since the outbreak of the global disease.

“We wish to commend the management team of the agency led by the Executive Chairman,   Mr.   Muhammad Nami, and members   of staff for this outstanding performance,” the Union added.

Read Also: FIRS: Regional tax transition body lacks vitality

According   to   the   ASCSN,   it   was   evident   from   last   month’s performance, that if given further motivation, the agency would even  generate sufficient revenue to finance the Federal Government’s budgets.

It added that the increase in  revenue was a product of the new tax reform known as Tax Administration Solution (TaxProMax) introduced by the Nami-led management team to ease tax compliance.

“The new tax regime, which took off on 7th  June 2021, enhances seamless registration, filing, payment of taxes and automatic credit of withholding tax as well as other credits to tax payers’ accounts including a single-view to tax payers for all transactions with the Agency,” the Union stated.

The ASCSN urged the government to give the FIRS the enabling environment and tools it needs for optimal output and disregard the activities of fifth columnists within and outside the agency, including failed experts,   be   they   economists   or   labour   leaders   bent   on   smearing   the   performance profile of the new management team.

By Toba Agboola

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has condemned the plan to limit fuel imports to few operators in the oil and gas industry.

It said this was monopolistic and aimed at frustrating the gains of Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

The union  urged that the market should be left open, if the government wanted to be sincere in addressing the problems of the sector.

According to the union, this is a conspiracy to waste another opportunity to fix the sector, noting that from the lawmakers’ position and body language, one could infer they are serving the interest of few individuals to the detriment of the over 97 per cent of the country’s population but that the congress would not allow that to happen.

In a statement, the  TUC President, Comrade Quadri Olaleye, and Secretary-General, Comrade Musa-Lawal Ozigi, said the country could not afford to continue toying with the oil and gas sector as it remained the only major source of foreign exchange.

The two leaders urged the lawmakers not to be seen to serve the interest of few capitalists.

They said: “It is high time these principalities and powers removed their knees from the neck of Nigeria and Nigerians.

“The congress is not against the companies holding refining licences; we are only saying the sector should be left open so the destiny of the country will not be in the hands of a few individuals.

“The pertinent questions are: how well are the products and markets controlled by these same few people doing? Why are the lawmakers failing to see the large number of companies and employment that could be created when more investors are allowed to invest?Are these people (lawmakers) not disturbed by the unprecedented insecurity challenge in the country caused by unemployment? How long are these people going to continue to exploit the country?

“There is no sugarcoating the matter, the capitalist trajectory in Nigeria is morally, economically, and legally wrong as it tends to impoverish Nigeria and Nigerians. It hinders the country’s financial and economic progress because it transfers a huge chunk of public wealth to “favoured businessmen”.

“This is not only treacherous but also a serious form of corruption. We urge them to use their money for the social benefits of all; after all, they enjoy forex largesse financed by Nigerians’hard earned oil revenue.

“We are calling on the government, especially the legislative arm, to rescind their decision immediately as it would only worsen the problem it is meant to solve. Nigerians are going through a very difficult period, and no bill against protest can stop us from opposing undemocratic and dictatorial laws and policies of government.’’

Many labour migrants, most especially women and other vulnerable from Africa, to Arab countries, are subjected to various maltreatments by their employers. The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic rubbed salt into their wounds. The International Labour Organisation (ILO), at a two-day training, examined how labour migration conditions from Africa to Arab countries could be improved. TOBA AGBOOLA reports.

Migrants who left their countries in  quest of greener pastures become worse off than they were, a report by the the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said.

African migrants, most especially women, who seek greener pasture in Arab countries, are subjected to sexual assault and other cruel treatments, the report added.

According to the ILO, migrant workers rose to 169 million worlwide in 2019. The distribution showed that 68.1 million or 41.6 per cent were female

The COVID-19 pandemic also escalated vulnerabilities of labour migrants to human and labour rights abuses as well as victimisation and unfair/unethical recruitment  arising from desperation.

These are some of the issues raised at the two-day training organised by the ILO in Lagos.

Addressing fair labour distribution, the ILO convened the workshop within the framework of the fairway project as a component of a wider response strategy to enhance the effectiveness of employers’ organisations, Private Employment Agencies (PEAs), in labour migration amid the context of the pandemic.

Director, ILO Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Liaison Office for ECOWAS, Vanessa Phala, who opened the workshop, said the event was aimed at understanding the key advocacy initiative that institutions such as Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) and Human Capital Providers Association of Nigeria (HuCaPAN) could use to support fair recruitment and manage illegal migration and human trafficking.

She said the project would make a better understanding of illegal migration and how best to respond as a country.

According to her, the workshop was aimed at seeing how businesses and employers respond to the impacts of the pandemic within the context of labour migration with critical engagement areas for stakeholders at the national level.

She stressed that it was in reference to the commitment demonstrated by Nigeria’s leaders in the existence of labour migration policy and legal frameworks and mechanisms that provided effective labour migration engagement for stakeholders.

She said: “It took into cognisance challenges and solutions relating to the future of decent and fair recruitment practice measures for migrant workers, including recommendations for future engagement.

“The project conceptualised the delivery of targeted training to enhance capacity among employers’ organisations including PEAs to enable them to contribute to the overall national response that supports returning migrants affected by the pandemic to reintegrate into the national labour market,” she said.

The training supported employers’ organisations to adapt advocacy efforts on labour migration to the context of the pandemic in Nigeria. It enhanced employers’awareness of emerging dynamics in labour mobility, fair recruitment and the future of work in the post-pandemic era.

The training also strengthened the capacity of employers to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic and engage in best practices that protect the rights of migrant workers.

President, HuCaPAN, Remi Adegboyega, spoke of the need to look at the migration of workers from the rural to the urban area.

He reiterated his organisation’s vision to  uphold relevant ILO Conventions on fair and ethical recruitment

The report on the 169 million global migrants, tagged “ILO global estimates on International migrant workers: Results and methodology”, showed that in 2019, international migrant workers constituted nearly five per cent of the global labour force, making them an integral part of the world economy.

Yet, many migrant workers are often in temporary, informal or unprotected jobs, which expose them to a greater risk of insecurity, layoffs and worsening working conditions.

The report noted that the COVID-19 crisis has intensified these vulnerabilities, particularly for women migrant workers, as they are over-represented in low-paid and low-skilled jobs and have limited access to social protection and fewer options for support services.

On the findings, the Director, ILO Conditions of Work and Equality Department, Manuela Tomei, said: “The pandemic has exposed the precariousness of their situation. Migrant workers are often first to be laid-off, they experience difficulties in accessing treatment and they are often excluded from national COVID-19 policy responses.”

Indeed, more than two-thirds of international migrant workers are concentrated in high-income countries.

Of the 169 million international migrant workers, 63.8 million (37.7 per cent) are in Europe and Central Asia. Another 43.3 million (25.6 per cent) are in the Americas. Hence, Europe and Central Asia and the Americas host 63.3 per cent of migrant workers.

The Arab states, and Asia and the Pacific each host about 24 million migrant workers, which, in total, correspond to 28.5 per cent of  migrant workers. In Africa, there are 13.7 million migrant workers, representing 8.1 per cent of the total.

The report finds that the majority of migrant workers – 99 million – are men, while 70 million are women.

It stated that women face more socio-economic obstacles as migrant workers and are more likely to migrate as accompanying family members for reasons other than finding work. They can experience gender discrimination in employment and may lack networks, making it difficult to reconcile work and family life in a foreign country.

According to the report, 66.2 per cent of migrant workers are in services, 26.7 per cent  in industry and 7.1 per cent in agriculture.

“Labour migration policies will be effective only if they are based on strong statistical evidence. This report offers sound estimations, based on robust methods and reliable data integrating harmonised complementary sources. These policies can then help countries respond to shifts in labour supply and demand, stimulate innovation and sustainable development, and transfer and update skills,” Rafael Diez de Medina, chief statistician and director, ILO Department of Statistics, added.

Disturbed by the kidnapping of 104 students of Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State, the  Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has urged the Federal Government to ensure the release of the students without causing further pains to their parents and guardians as well as the students.

In a statement in Abuja, ASCSN Acting National President, Comrade Tommy Etim Okon, and the Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, stated that the kidnapping of the 104 students and four teachers of Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State was further proof that  security had continued to deteriorate.

“We call on the Federal Government to urgently rejig the security architecture in the country and ensure that there is a synergy among security agencies as well as the communities to improve the security situation.

“It is common knowledge that no society can develop if the government cannot guarantee safety of lives and property of the citizens,” the union stated.

According to the ASCSN, since President Muhammadu Buhari recently urged State Governments and traditional rulers to secure their domains instead of waiting for the Federal Government, the State Governments must take up the challenge to strengthen Vigilante Groups in their states and provide them with necessary tools to confront terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers.

The Director-General, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Mr Joseph Ari, said the Fund has trained 25 million Nigerians on various skills since its establishment 49 years ago.

Making this in Jos, Ari said the beneficiaries of the training were manning key sectors of the economy.

He said the key mandate of the ITF as enshrined in the Act that established it, was provision of skilled manpower sufficient to meet the needs of public and private sectors.

“Despite the enormity of the mandate, the ITF has discharged it with great successes by training over 25 million Nigerians in various skills,” he said.

He said since the inception of the  management of the fund, its commitment to equipping Nigerians with technical skills for employability and entrepreneurship had never wavered.

He said their emphasis on skills acquisition had been premised on the fund’s firm belief that it remained the most sustainable solution to increasing poverty and unemployment and the catalyst to growth and development.

Last year, he said, in spite of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the fund implemented the following skills intervention programmes: the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP) Special Skills Development Programme (SSDP) and Federal Government Skills Empowerment Programme (FEGOSEP).

Others are: Info-Tech Skills Empowerment Programme (ISEP) and Agri-Preneurship Training Programme (ATP) in addition to programmes which had trained thousands of Nigerians that were empowered with start-up packs for them to set up their own businesses.

According to Ari, the ITF upgraded facilities at its Industrial Skills Training Centres (ISTCs) and the Model Skills Training Centre (MSTC) Abuja, leading to the equipping of thousands of Nigerians with technical skills for employability and entrepreneurship.

He also said one outcome of the upgrade was production of the first indigenous Android GSM Smartphone with 100 per cent locally sourced materials by the ITF Model Skills Training Centre (MSTC) Abuja.

President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Ayuba Wabba, who is also the President, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), in an interview with TOBA AGBOOLA, says the organised Labour will soon shut the economy over the refusal of Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai to respect the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) he entered into with the union over the crisis in the state. He speaks on other issues as they affect the workers.

Covid-19 and Social Protection in Nigeria

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the deficiencies in Nigeria’s social protection system. A sound social protection system provides a cushioning mechanism in the midst of life circle vulnerabilities, through nationally-defined social protection floors that guarantee citizens’ access to essential health care, basic income security for vulnerable citizens such as the unemployed, the aged, physically-challenged, women and those displaced by natural disasters. The pandemic has further exposed the inadequacies of the flawed economic model of our country. This is so unfortunate.

The National Minimum Wage

The National Minimum Wage serves as social protection by providing a minimum income floor to safeguard low earners. Today, there are attempts by a section of Nigeria’s ruling class to kill the National Minimum Wage by removing it as an item from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List. This is most despicable. As we had already canvassed during our nationwide protests and submission of petitions to the National Assembly and the 36 state Houses of Assembly on March 10, 2021 and subsequently in advocacy visits and advertorials in seven major newspapers in Nigeria, the National Minimum Wage is a global standard established by the ILO as Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery Convention 026 of 1928 and reinforced by Minimum Wage Fixing Convention 131 of 1970. Hiding under the mask of fiscal federalism, a few politicians want to rob workers of the meagre national minimum wage which by today’s foreign exchange is equivalent to $60 – a far cry from the first national minimum wage of the equivalent of $125, which was signed into law in 1981 by the late Shehu Shagari. We will resist this evil. Minimum wage laws are in force in about 90 per cent of ILO member-states. In the United States, a federal state, the social partners adopted an hourly national minimum wage of $7.25 preserved in the federal laws of the United States.

The different federating states can pay higher than the national minimum of $7.25, but no state pays lower. For Germany, a federal state in Western Europe, it also sets her National Minimum Wage on hourly rate, which  stands at 9.35 euro.

The regional governments ensure that wages in their domains do not fall lower than the National Minimum Wage benchmark. Germany increased its National Minimum Wage from 8.84 euros (2017 rate) to 9.35 euros in 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic outbreak. Some persons may retort that the economic asymmetry between Nigeria and these economies are obvious, but our quick response is that other facts espoused in this piece will illuminate the social, economic and industrial wisdom in this approach.

The argument that the transfer of the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive to the Concurrent List is part of the efforts to restructure the country is a poor attempt to call a dog a bad name to hang it. If there is anything that needs restructuring, it is the maximum wages arbitrarily fixed by elected political office holders and which have no bearing whatsoever in international law or standards.

It is difficult to imagine that those who enjoy very fat wages, allowances, pensions and other perks of office would be the ones thinking of snatching from workers’mouths the little minimum wage we are struggling to survive on. This action only smacks of a class war indicative of the intents of a privileged few to wilfully pauperise and enslave the mass of our people. Our argument for the retention of the National Minimum Wage on the Exclusive Legislative List is also propelled by the fact that the National Minimum Wage is a tool for social inclusion and poverty reduction. The National Minimum Wage is a product of negotiations between Labour, organised private sector and Government. During the negotiations, the government is represented at both federal and state levels and a number of issues are taken into consideration with data provided by relevant federal and state institutions and agencies. Some of the issues considered include inflation rate, poverty threshold rate, purchasing power parity and periodic surveys by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Mass sack and casualisation of workers in Kaduna

We consider the recent mass sack and casualisation of more than 60 per cent of the workforce in Kaduna State as the most brutal attack on workers and trade union rights in our nation’s history. You would recall that between 2016 and this year, the Kaduna State Governor, Mr. Nasir el-Rufai sacked 21,770 primary school teachers, 7,310 local government employees, 3,000 personnel in the state Civil Service and 1,240 workers at the Kaduna State Primary Health Care Board. While Mr. el-Rufai sacked workers with one hand, he increased the school fees in Kaduna State University by almost 500 per cent. This clearly shows a well- mapped plan to make the children of the working class to destitute. Is this how Mr. el-Rufai understands development? The actions of the Kaduna State governor are in breach of provisions of Section 20 Sub Sections 1(a-c), 2 and 3 of Nigeria’s Labour Act which demand consultation with workers representative organisations and that redundancy benefits be agreed upon with workers representative organisations before redundancy letters are issued to workers. We also condemn in the strongest term the violation of the terms of Employment Contract of the disengaged workers which provides for 60 years’retirement age and or 35 years’ of active service. Talk of rubbing insult to injury. Mr. el-Rufai has refused to pay workers that he had earlier sacked between 2016 and 2020 their redundancy benefits. Governor El-Rufai certainly enjoys his dance of oddity in impunity. Mr. el-Rufai continues to prove himself as an agent provocateur and the precursor for the deteriorating security situation in Kaduna State.

The Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, had not respected the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered into with the organised labour on the pathway to resolving the industrial crisis occasioned by the mass sack of workers. If the rights of workers were not respected by the Kaduna State government, we might be forced to withdraw our services nationwide.

Poor governance, unemployment and insecurity

During a summit that we held recently, it was clearly established that human insecurity as marked by mass unemployment is the main driver for the physical insecurity besieging our dear country. According to data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), unemployment figures in Nigeria has reached an all-time high of 33.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2020 from 27.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2020. Part of the challenge of unemployment and insecurity is the crisis of poor governance. Weak budgets that lead to poor appropriations and poorer budgetary oversight is the bane of our development. It is unfortunate and a terrible injustice to the memory of Nigeria’s founding fathers that virtually every part of the country has been engulfed by one form of security challenge or the other. In the Northeast, there is the challenge of Boko Haram terrorism. In the Northwest, there is the challenge of rural banditry and kidnap-for-ransom. In the Northcentral, there is the challenge of farmers and pastoralists clashes. In the Southsouth, armed militants still operate in the mangroves engaged in all manner of economic sabotage. In the Southwest and Southeast, local militias are filling the vacuum created by the absence of the state and are heating up the polity with ethno-religious rhetoric. Workers are the major targets. So many teachers, health workers, agricultural and food chain workers have been either kidnapped or killed. So many working families have had the lives of their breadwinners brutally cut short leaving behind open wounds that could be the sores for another cycle of counter-violence.

Management of the Petroleum Sector and Electricity Tariff

We have engaged Government on the arbitrary electricity tariff charged consumers. Our representatives in the Electricity Tariff Committee found that the multi-year tariff order (MYTO) was based on some strange assumptions. These are the inflation rate; Exchange rate of the naira to the United States Dollar standing at N383.8; inflation rate in the United States of 1.5 per cent; price of gas for generation at $2.50/MMBtu. We cannot accept these strange and fluid criteria in the electricity tariff regime. The same thing in the propose increase in the fuel pump price. We will not accept any increase.

Industrialisation / small scale enterprises (SMEs)

The collapse of the industrial sector is the reason for the plague of mass unemployment, poverty and insecurity ravaging our country. Industrialisation is the key to the overall growth of the national economy. Report has it that millions of companies have closed shops in Nigeria between 2009 and 2021, due to harsh operating environment.The surviving ones are described as ailing. For instance, there were over 10 textile mills between Oshodi and Apapa in Lagos. Dunlop, Michelin, Peugeot used to be here. Why did these companies leave? Similarly, according to report, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) drive the economy and creates over 85 per cent jobs in most advanced countries, especially Europe. It is different in Nigeria. Businesses are killed at infancy. Here, the government makes so much noise about job creation but rather than help businesses to grow, agencies of government stifle the SMEs through multiple taxation – leaving the economy and Nigerians strangulated and impoverished. The government at all levels must, as of urgency, relax its grip on business owners.

Debt burden

Nigeria is saddled with a huge debt stock. Close to 80 per cent of the revenue from the Federation Account goes to the servicing of the debts accumulated by the Federal Government alone. The sordid story is the same in many states like Kaduna with very huge debt stock. Currently, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted over N10 trillion ways and means advances to the Federal Government. The loan portfolio far exceeds what the statutes of the CBN allows her to do. We understand that in this context, the Debt Management Office (DMO) wants to propose issuing of securities to cover the local debt stock. This measure would only enable the Government to borrow more money. Like all external funding, Nigeria’s unending borrowing comes with stiff conditionalities. Our country has increasingly become a high-risk borrower. One conditionality is the further devaluation of the national currency. A definite implication of the borrowing policy has been the inflationary pressure on the economy as every significant rise in domestic debt has led to higher pressures on the local currency, transaction cost of doing business and wiping of the gains of the minimum wage with increased cost of living. All this hurts most Nigerians, especially workers as well as the productive private sector.