Though he leads a troubled house, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Comrade Ayuba Wabba does not allow that to affect his vision for the congress. According to him, labour must regain its bite to live up to its billing as workers’ representative. In this interview with TOBA AGBOOLA, the comrade-presidentspeaks on a wide range of issues, including the economy, perennial fuel scarcity, subsidy and restructuring of parastatals.
How is labour contending with the high rate of unemployment and naira devaluation, among other issues?
First, we are aware of the daunting challenges, especially in our economy and in our social life which have brought a lot of dislocation to our members. We are obviously aware of that and part of our responsibility is to effectively respond to some of these challenges so that our immediate constituency and the larger society would not be at the receiving end of those policies.
It is true that our currency has been devalued over time due to the fallen price of crude oil which is our major source of revenue, and this has also affected the revenue accruing to government. This has invariably affected the provision of social services and developmental processes. We are mindful of this that is why for every challenge in life, there must be an alternative solution.
As I said at an earlier event, we have constituted a committee of experts that is working on alternatives to some of these challenges; in fact the report is ready.
What is labour’s position on petroleum products pricing and the perennial fuel scarcity?
Yes, incessant increases in the pump price of petrol have been with us for over three or four decades. I am not sure the argument has changed, from what I used to know in the 80s, that has been advanced as reason for shortage or hike in the cost.
Therefore, it is an irony and it should be a concern to all of us that despite the fact that we are one of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that God has blessed enormously with this resource, the issue of managing it has become a problem. First, our inability to refine petroleum products for our domestic use, 40 years down the line, is an issue of mismanagement.
Recently, I read about a proposition made by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), because they are also part of the problem and they have said, yes the subsidy issue is false. They have said that clearly and that they are now ready to buy crude products, refine them outside the country and bring them back even at a lower price.
Those are issues and information that would interest all of us.
You’ve just mentioned fuel subsidy. What is your take on it?
It has been established over time that the issue of subsidy in Nigeria is false. Months before the election, those issues came into play. You remember before Yar’Adua came in, this issue came to play because it’s the same money they use to prosecute the agenda of the election.
Now preceding the 2015 elections, the same issue had come to play, it’s for us Nigerians to unite in one force and agree. In fact in my view, the issue of subsidy is even questionable, that we need to first interrogate and agree if there is subsidy or not. That case needs to be established, but in the interim I agree with you, Nigerians should not be allowed to suffer and therefore the new government must of necessity put up their thinking cap and see how in the short-term, we will get out of this quagmire.
Government must make fuel available at a price that is reasonable, so that Nigerians will not be made to suffer the ills of the system. No doubt this is not about few marketers who have taken all of us for granted. In that recent press release issued by IPMAN, they claimed that there is no subsidy anywhere and therefore this claim, or request for over N200 billion, doesn’t exist. Therefore it’s a scam and I think that should be a concern to all of us.
What action are you contemplating in response to the matter?
As organised labour, we will be willing to confront these issues headlong. In fact, we are going to revive our monthly discussion and interaction on major policy issues where we will bring experts to debate and that will allow us to have a firm position on how to respond to these issues, but I think what is playing out is also good for us.
The information clearly will make any government that wants to take any hasty decision to be weary of the fact that the issue of subsidy is a scam and therefore that issue must be addressed first, before you think of either removal of subsidy or not.
In fact, the information we have, goes beyond lamentations, because in some of the instances we were told even the ones we refine locally, what they do is to put them on ship and come back and say they are imported products and therefore you should pay subsidy on them. So what are you talking about subsidy, it’s just about rhetorics. People are using the rhetoric of subsidy to confuse all of us and continue to benefit from a system that is not working.
It’s for all of us to come together and agree and give direction that this issue should not continue, few people should not continue to benefit from the system to the detriment of all of us because its artificial scarcity. Why is it that when you go to the outskirts of town, you find fuel?
So it’s not about unavailability, no, it’s about people also taking us for granted, the fuel is available. A guy that I was interrogating when I saw the government’s response, said they have sufficient strategic reserves. The first statement we asked is whether we have now abandoned the issue of having strategic reserve, they said they have products in abundance; therefore the issue is few marketers holding all of us to ransom.
Government must find the will to address the issue squarely, what may be delaying our engagement is because you need those key principal officers of government to be on board so that you can engage them. You can’t engage ghosts because for now there are no structures in place. So who do you engage?
We don’t also want a situation where our action would also compound the issue and bring more hardship to Nigerians, so the issue of withdrawal of services certainly will not be an option.
The issue is how you confront these challenges headlong to bring about solution; those are the challenges and I am sure we are ready to tackle them.
From the team we have at NLC now, when you talk of experience, various sectors and key unions that are actually solid, not those that are standing on one leg, we have them in good number to galvanise whatever support we require from Nigerian workers to be able to respond to whatever policy that is being churned out.
There are indications that this administration may take drastic measures, such as merger of parastatals, to streamline the civil service. This might result in job losses, how will you handle the challenge when it crops up?
The issue of merger of parastatals, we have made our position very clear because to me that would also be a contradiction to the policy of this present government. They have promised to create three million jobs annually through public works and therefore it will be a contradiction for you to make people to lose their jobs while on the other hand you are trying to create jobs.
Our employment market in Nigeria is saturated because there is no worker today that would not have more than 10 dependants. I as a person, I know I have more than 10 dependants, or people that have graduated but they are not employed so they depend on me for their means of livelihood. Once you take away that, you are also compounding the social security system in our country. That will not be a better option.
Secondly, it will also be at a cost because any worker you are severing, you don’t only pay his benefit, you also pay him severance package, so that will be a cost and am not sure they have counted the cost, it’s still mere speculation and we are going to advance these reasons to defend such issues.
You are aware of the issue of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), they have disengaged over 4000 staff, three years down the line, no worker has been paid. In fact part of our engagement is also to engage the process; we have already given them a notice that we will also engage the process and seal off that place, government must find money to pay those workers because it’s not their making for them to be exited from service. They have families to feed, they have worked for a period of years, they are entitled to their benefits but these benefits have not been paid.
We are not in a jungle, therefore those are issue that am sure cannot fly when we put it side-by-side the facts of the issue. Why do you think the implementation has been delayed till now, it’s because there are a lot of intricacies in it, that is why even the government that set up the committee couldn’t implement the report till date, so I think that is one of the murky areas that should be addressed and government should be very cautious in implementing such reports, we are not the problem.
Workplace improvement seemed to be the focal point of this year’s International Labour Oganisation (ILO) conference. Tell us how labour centres in Nigeria contributed to discussions at the 104th ILO conference?
Globally, labour has a standard and part of why we are here is to look at what is the global best practice in terms of decent work agenda, in terms of occupational health and safety, remuneration, application of standards even in terms of collective bargaining.
That is why we have ILO conventions specifically 87 and 98 which set standards for how labour issues will be discussed, so part of why we are here is to align ourselves to the best global practice in terms of responding to some of those challenges and therefore it’s not a wasted effort for all of us to be here.
What was your major focus or area of interest at the just concluded ILO conference ?
We are here to sharpen our skill and also fit into the global system of managing labour and Industrial Relation issues. So basically we are beneficiaries of these process and it’s also a tripartite system where you have employers and the government participating in this process and therefore all of us must conform ourselves to what we refer to as international global practice in labour and trade union administration.
So part of our take home from here, you also realise that most of our members have participated actively in all the four committees. For instance, I have participated effectively in the Committee on Application of Standard. We have made several interventions.
I know some of them have participated on the Committee on SMEs; the one on the Formalisation on the Informal Economy and that of Social Protection.
One issue we can take home from here is the fact that we have sharpened our skills to engage those challenges, because we are not also isolated as Nigeria. Those challenges facing the global economy are also what affect other countries.
In the same global world, some other countries are talking of reviewing their wages because they also need to empower the workers, those are some of the take home for us and they advanced good reasons why that should take place, because those issues are global issues. What drives development across the world is the labour component.
Labour creates the wealth through industrialisation and therefore those are issues. As a country we need to queue into that if our quest for development and transformation is anything to go by.
We must then go back to the basis of creating that wealth through meaningful employment and through making our industries, and work by industrialisation policies.
Those are some of our take home from this ILO conference and certainly it’s going to give us an edge in addressing some of these challenges.
How do you intend to return labour movement to its glorious era, given your campaign promise of returning to the founding principles of the movement?
I think we have actually tried to capture the challenges; there is no gain saying the fact that in terms of prestige, there is drastic change in the way workers perceive NLC over the past few years. This is basically because of the fact that we have not been able to engage a lot of policy issues that have direct bearing on the well-being and welfare of workers and even the citizenry. This substantially has affected our prestige before our members and I think as a member of a very reputable union, this is not an issue we can just gloss over, it is a challenge. When you look at the issue of the economy, I think over the past decades, we have been on top of it, there is no economic issue government will contemplate that NLC has not had its own position whether for or against such policy.
We are going back to this basic, that is, our founding principle which is to represent only the interest of the workers. And I think for me, this is very key for us to earn the confidence of the workers because once you earn their confidence, you are also able to earn the confidence of the employers. So we are saying that once you make a pronouncement you must be able to back it up with action and see to the conclusion of the issues.
We are returning to the basics where the interest and only the interest of the workers will dominate our engagement with the government and even form the cords and basis of interactions with other social partners. The area I intend to galvanise and bring back, is the biting and confrontational aspect of the labour movement which is lacking now, when you make pronouncement, you must back it up with necessary action. We have responsibility to bring back the labour culture of representing the Nigerian workers.
