Tag: Nigeria Labour Congress

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has become predictable in its very casual manner of taking issue with the policies and programmes of the Bola Tinubu administration. The job which history assigned the party, after it lost presidential election thrice, is much huger than party leaders appear to appreciate. So far it has misunderstood and misapplied the tools of opposition politics. On its own, the Labour Party (LP) has never really functioned as a party, let alone opposition party, beyond the idealism, fantasies and statistical excitedness of Peter Obi. Since the party does not even operate as a political party, and Mr Obi is too distracted and impatient to function in the capacity a political party needs, he is far less likely than his opposite number in the PDP to imbue the LP with anything substantial or inspiring. Shockingly, it is actually the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), under the increasingly hysterical and myopic Joe Ajaero, that is stepping into the gap. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) arm of organised labour seems more eager to adhere to the technical strictures of a labour union.

In the short run, the country had better get used to seeing the NLC operate as the official opposition. The Tinubu administration must factor that fact into its governance equation. The TUC too, and the rest of the country, must get used to seeing the NLC as a political transvestic, at least until Mr Ajaero completely diminishes and demystifies the union. The TUC must also finally come to terms with the annoying reality of a politicised NLC or cease riding the coattail of the senior arm of organised labour. When the TUC brusquely called out a national strike over Mr Ajaero’s Imo State debacle months ago, reflecting a needless personalisation of serious national issue, it ought to know that it was either setting itself up for total subordination to the NLC or diluting its own aims and objectives. The Department of State Service (DSS) must also now begin to factor the changes brought upon the NLC by the politicised Mr Ajaero. Dealing with the NLC in the past was a fairly straightforward thing; dealing with them today, when they seemed to have cut their political teeth on the national stage and are eager to sink those teeth into the jugulars of anyone that crosses their path, is a different kettle of fish.

Everyone – public, TUC, DSS, federal government – must gradually begin to understand that the NLC has become indistinguishable from the LP, basking in the limelight and continuing to revel in its newfound fame. The problem, it must be understood, is not just that the NLC gave birth to LP and turned it into a feral social media beast, but that the immoderate and uncalculating Mr Ajaero has been asked to suckle and wean the ogre. No one has done a chemistry of the milk on which the LP is suckled, but what is known is that the baby is temperamental and pugnacious, and is unwilling to be tamed either by law or by the constitution. There is hardly anyone who does not know that a street protest today stands the very high risk of being hijacked; the DSS says so, the NLC and Mr Ajaero know it, and the government also fears the possibility. Even though it does not say so, the TUC also suspects that a protest could indeed turn very nasty very quickly. But regardless of any misgiving, and despite any DSS warning, the fanatical Mr Ajaero has sustained his obstinacy. He wants to go ahead with his protest, an indication that the NLC leadership has probably become zombified or is unqualified for the offices assigned departmental leaders.

The clearest indication that the NLC has lost its wits is its readiness to call out a strike on a whim. It was so eager for a protest that it forgot to carry along the other labour centre, the TUC, yes the same second arm of organised labour that saved its bacon months ago when political hoodlums taught the witless Mr Ajaero a lesson on the dangers of meddling in local politics. Scorned by Mr Ajero and angry that it had been scorned, and perhaps was merely being tolerated, the TUC has written a fiery letter of protest against its mistreatment. It will not join NLC’s February 27 and 28 protests, it says. What the TUC’s Festus Osifo does not suspect is that Mr Ajaero is merely tolerating him. The NLC feels it can go it alone, and that the TUC is surplus to requirement. In the about eight months of the Tinubu administration, Mr Ajaero has threatened or called out a strike at least four times, like a confetti. He and his union had sought out reasons for battle, and determined where and how the battles should be fought. He is not a deep thinker, nor a chess player, nor even an orator who could stir an impassioned crowd, but he knows how to capitalise on the emotional deficit of his co-unionists and herd them over the precipice. He will not stop until he is embarrassed. He will not heed any warning. It is not in his nature to heed anything he cannot decipher, for few speak his language as adroitly as Imolites spoke it last November when he thought that the same diffidence he encountered at the national scene could be transmuted onto the local political scene, especially his state where they read his sinister moves far more competently.

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In early January, Mr Obi adjudged the Nigerian political scene ready to host him and his party as the main political opposition. In a New Year message, he declared his readiness to outpace any other opposition party and fulfill the mandate he believed had been entrusted to him. He stopped short of describing it as a divine mandate in line with his religious politics. Yet, he is merely chasing shadows, conspicuously engaging in leisure of the theory class. The truth is far more intriguing than Mr Obi has made it. Mr Ajaero is actually the main opposition leader, backed of course by the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria. He is more discussed than Mr Obi, and seems well on the way to becoming capable of evoking fear and dread among the populace and in the corridors of power. Meanwhile, the NLC, not the more amorphous LP, is the main opposition party. There is no need settling any precedence between the two or publishing a change of name. Let the general public, as they say, take note.

That abominable refrain, ebin pa wa

For those really interested in why Nigeria has fallen on hard times, the economic and political facts speak for themselves without any obfuscating technicalities. More crude oil is being produced in line with OPEC quota, but the dollars are not available for the government to use, having being pledged by the previous administration in foreign exchange forwards that weakened external reserves to less than $4bn instead of about $33bn. Under ex-president Muhammadu Buhari, also, the government printed about N23trn through ways and means, and retroactively appropriated and passed the spending weeks before the end of his second term. And to cap the economic insanity, the last administration took over $30bn loan and added it to the $10bn it inherited. In one brutally short phrase, Nigeria was broke by the time a new administration took over – not only broke, but also broken. To fix such brokenness would take years; but Nigerians, particularly the youth and also the unenlightened and idealistic, not to say those who view every measure through ethnic prism, want the fixing done in months. They do not take issue with the measures designed to do the fixing, for these economic tools are hard to comprehend, instead they take issue with the symptoms.

Nigeria is not insulated from the inflationary pressure dogging the world. But given the low income status of the country, and the relative absence of social safety nets, the effects have been felt rather more severely, particularly in the area of hunger. Long used to being fed almost for free as a result of oil wealth, Nigerians have elevated the hunger pangs flowing from the ongoing economic hardship to a crisis. This crisis is compounded by the creeping politicisation of every step, facial expression, and statement from the presidency. Fortunately, religion as a political factor has abated considerably. But ethnicity has continued to loom very large. Perhaps, over time, that factor will also diminish. But for now, whether it concerns fuel subsidy or relocation of a few departments in a few ministries, the ethnic factor is stretched to its elastic limit and made to look like a consistent and deliberate programme by the administration.

But what is complicating the hunger crisis now expediently turned into singsongs and street protests is the erosion of the privileges of powerful men of yesterday who sense danger from probes launched into the financial dealings of ministries, agencies and departments. Some analysts justify the protests on the grounds that President Tinubu’s policies are iniquitous, misplaced, and brutal. This is incredible sophistry. In the first instance, the global economic downturn does not leave any country insulated. Secondly, the cumulative effect of poorly conceived national and economic policies implemented over four or so decades impoverished Nigerians, degraded institutions, obliterated local industries capable of backward and forward linkages, erased safety nets, and created a dismal and frightful future for the people. Rather than tackle the problems from the roots, fearful administrations took loans to cover the gaps, and fished for short-term reliefs. In summary, the problems metastisised years ago such that no palliative could mitigate or obviate them, let alone an eight-month-old administration assailed from the beginning by ethnic and religious jingoists.

Until there is a better understanding of the root causes of the problems, and public enlightenment to guide Nigerians away from the sensationalism and idealism energising protests against the symptoms of the disease rather than the disease itself, the country will remain susceptible to manipulations by vested interests, ethnic irredentists, traditional rulers, and other freelance bigots masquerading as activists and rights crusaders. The answer to a crisis that took so long in maturing cannot be found in panaceas that take a few months to conceive and execute. That would be a silly resort to magic. The answer lies in patient rebuilding of the foundation, and careful bricklaying and structural engineering. It takes time to stay the course and do the right thing, despite the undue politicisation of the pains accompanying the country’s economic surgery. The administration may not have got its appointments right in all cases, and has been a little tardy in imposing discipline on erring officials indispensable to protecting the legacy it is trying to establish, but it must be firm in administering the medicine. Secure the farms and countryside, return to agriculture in the copious manner the regions did before and immediately after independence, fight crime and criminality in an active manner rather than the laid-back and passive manner it is being done, and completely eliminate rent-seeking. The easy options exist only hypothetically.

Too many Nigerians have poured into the cities and urban centres doing little or nothing and expecting to be fed and pampered. They will go hungry, especially when global fluctuations and economic crisis occur. However, the government has an obligation to holistically reconstruct the economy to enable it cater to the needs of the people. Such reconstructions cannot but rest on the principles of federalism if the building is to stand and withstand periodic stress. It is time local and state authorities, in line with federalism, shared in the blame for decades of indolence and ineptitude. It is also time the Tinubu administration let the states know what they can and must do to placate their people and midwife life more abundant for them. The crisis is multifaceted; it requires deep thinking, not ad hoc solutions.

Good thinking from Lagos, but…

Lagos State government, like a few other state governments, particularly Niger State, has introduced far-reaching measures to mitigate the impact of the ongoing economic crisis on Lagosians. The state has been methodical, probably newfangled in its ideas, but nevertheless scientific. Among the measures are subsidised public transportation, expansion of subsidised Sunday markets for foodstuffs, fewer working days for civil servants, free child delivery at the state’s 31 general hospitals, and soup kitchens in each LGAs to feed 1,000 people per day. On the surface, these are laudable ideas.

But the last two measures are problematic, very problematic. How do they hope to limit the number of people fed in soup kitchens to 1,000 without creating a stampede? The measure sounds well in the ears. Beyond that it is fraught with all manner of difficulties. One, who would the fed be, and would they truly be Lagosians?  Two, free child delivery is a counterproductive policy that would probably exacerbate Nigeria’s uncontrolled population growth. It encourages indolence and plays to the gallery to seek to underwrite childbirth. This measure should be replaced with a drugs policy that gives succour to those burdened by expensive lifesaving medications. More importantly, given the limit to what the government can offer, should the state not demand some kind of identifications’, say registration with Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA), in order to derive any benefit?