Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Fuel/currency crisis: Challenging times for workers’ leadership

By Collins Olayinka (Abuja) and Gloria Nwafor (Lagos)
14 February 2023   |   1:08 pm
There was a time when Nigerians trusted the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to rise to the occasion whenever there was a price increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

Oshiomhole. Photo: GHGOSSIP

There was a time when Nigerians trusted the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to rise to the occasion whenever there was a price increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

 
Indeed, former President of the NLC, Adams Oshiomhole, could be said to have rode on the popularity of the movement to become the governor of Edo State.
For the nine times that former President Olusegun Obasanjo raised the pump price from N20 per litre in 1999 to N70 per litre in 2007, the NLC rose stoutly to resist the original figures government initially proposed.
 
This was the pedestal Abdulwaheed Omar-led National Administrative Council (NAC) had to contend with when he was elected in February 2007.
Of course, to Oshiomhole, the Omar-led team failed to meet the high expectations he had set.
 
Therefore, the tone of the congratulatory letter to Ayuba Wabba when he was elected in 2015, clearly showed his disappointment and eagerness for a possible rebirth of the NLC.
 
Oshiomhole argued that NLC under Wabba must seek to re-assert labour independence, re-connect with the forgotten rural majority and position itself as a major player in shaping Nigeria’s polity, economy and society consistent with the true traditions of the Congress and interests of the Nigerian working families.
 
In a grimaced tone, Oshiomhole submitted that the once vibrant Congress has lost a significant amount of prestige and influence in the eyes of the Nigerian working people and the public at large.
 
In a concealed, yet carefully delivered outburst, Oshiomhole declared: “The Nigerian people no longer see the Congress as the ‘voice of voiceless’ and a bulwark against socio-economic and political oppression, as well as injustices in the polity. The Congress is essentially viewed as either being complicit or at best indifferent to the cries of the poor working-class people and middle-class citizens, who are daily at the receiving end of an unjust social order.”
 
While a similar letter may not be delivered to the incoming NLC president, Joe Ajaero by Oshiomhole as a member of the ruling All Progress Congress (APC), which is seeking re-election, what is clear is that the labour movement urgently needs a redirection.
 
Nigerian workers have endured PMS scarcity that has lasted more than one year and a naira redesign that has caused hardships. The NLC under Wabba has been mute and ineffective except for issuing press statements occasionally that are worthless and say nothing.
 
NLC, to many Nigerians, is a dead organisation that ceased to be in existence since the exit of the diminutive Adams Oshiomhole.
 
However, since exiting office as governor, as well as National Chairman of the APC, the once vociferous ex-labour leader has remained taciturn on the performance of the Wabba-led NLC, which has trounced the ineffective Omar tenure in terms of a national response to PMS price, increasing official corruption, raging Boko Haram insurgency and banditry that have nearly emasculated the Nigerian nation.
 
The price of PMS has moved from N86 per litre the Buhari administration met to N185, while the product goes as high as N1,000 per litre with NLC pretending to be unaware of the corresponding hardship heaped on the populace.
 
Posterity beckons as Ajaero mounts the saddle of leadership that will be ratified in Abuja today.
For the first time in the history of NLC, all the positions are unopposed. This may stem from the acrimonies that engulfed the 2015 conference, which snowballed into a major crisis.
 
Ajaero was at the centre of the crisis then with former President of NUPENG, Igwe Achese, former General Secretary of the garment and tailoring union, Isa Aremu, who is now the Director General of the Michael Imoudu Institute of Labour Studies (MINILS), in Ilorin, Kwara state, as major dramatis personae.
 
It took the efforts of past leaders of the union to broker a truce between the warring factions, a development that culminated in the bringing on board of Joe Ajaero, General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) as Deputy National President.
 
Among the NAC members is Adewale Adeyanju of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), as 1st Deputy National President; Audu Amba of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) as 2nd Deputy National President and Kabiru Sani of Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) as 3rd Deputy National President; Olatunji Ambali of Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), as Treasurer and Williams Akporeha of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), as Ex-officio, among others.

Commending the new leadership of the NLC, the President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Dr. Tommy Okon, said the confidence reposed on the team would go a long way.
 
He said the trade union has come a long way, where there should be no room for fighting during elections, but to choose a leader that has the credentials, capacity and capability.
 
Stating that the selection process, devoid of rancour, showed that the process was scientific.
 
On his expectations from the new team, Okon said: “I don’t want to pre-empt them because I know they can move the administration forward.”
 
National President of Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NUR), Innocent Ajiji, said the selection was a decision the unions made to save time and work “because we know they are capable of the job. The leadership is a pure replica of people, who are fit for the job. We are satisfied with the selection.
 
“With 2023 being an election year, we expect them to turn everything around, all the things the former president could not achieve; we expect him to achieve.”
 
General Secretary of the Federation of Informal Workers’ Organisation of Nigeria (FIWON), Gbenga Komolafe, said: “We congratulate the NLC on its forthcoming elections and pray that they have a successful outing. We understand candidates have been picked for the various offices by consensus so there won’t be elections as such. This makes for a less acrimonious conference and lends itself to greater cohesiveness of the organisation post-elections, even though it might raise questions about the democratic process not being fully expressed.
 
“The most important concern is whether or not we would end up with a fighting NLC leadership, which the Nigerian people need at this time.”

 
 

0 Comments