Are Nigeria’s labour leaders idealists or realists?

SIR: Perhaps it is high time to ask whether the leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress and those of its affiliate union, the Trade Union Congress are idealists or realists? This is because members of these unions have never been known to be realistic in their approach to the issue of salary increase which has always been a matter of controversy between them and the Federal Government. Each time labour embarks on its struggle on wage increase in response to the galloping inflation in the country, it heads directly to the Federal Government to press home its demands. In doing so, labour forces the Federal Government to make pronouncements on behalf of the states on how much workers in the entire Nigeria must earn as salaries.

That is without taking into consideration the ability of each state to cope with whatever the federal government agrees to pay after many deadlocked meetings. What then happens eventually is always a situation where most of the states are unable to pay and then the continuation of labour struggles in different states. What sense does it make for Labour to keep forcing the federal government each time to make pronouncements on behalf of totally handicapped states? How many states were able to pay the former thirty thousand naira minimum wage pronounced by the Federal Government many years ago? And if most states were unable to pay it, what is the guarantee that they will pay the new seventy thousand naira minimum wage?

If members of Nigeria Labour organizations ever allow reason to prevail in their deliberations and approach to the issue of wages for workers, it ought to be able to realize that workers in all states of the federation can never earn the same salaries since the cost of living in each of the states differs. Or how can anyone compare the cost of living in Osun state with that of Lagos and expect workers in the two states to earn the same salary?  Besides, most of the states are never viable without the monthly federal allocations, so how will such states be able to abide by whatever the federal government agrees with labour on the issue of salary to workers?

What ought to be therefore, if Labour leaders are to be realistic in their approach, is for them to allow each state governor to sit down with its own workers through their union and agree on a workable salary plans. Each governor is in a position to know the state of its income and expenditure and how much is affordable as salary to workers in view of the cost of living in his state. This is the most realistic approach that will never lead to any trouble or struggle between the government and labour. Any other approach is begging the question and simply postponing the evil day. 
• Jide Oyewusi, coordinator of Ethics Watch International, Lagos.