In last week’s edition of my publication on X (formerly Twitter), I engaged the issue of wage dispute between the Nigerian workers and the Federal Government of Nigeria. Over the years, since I was a child, I have been witnessing strikes by Nigerian workers, leading to the shutting down of the economy and critical infrastructure. My history lessons gave me an insight into the days of Pa Michael Imoudu as the first Nigerian labour leader who led the struggles that made Nigerian workers part of the struggles for independence. In 1939, Imoudu emerged the president of the Railway Workers’ Union and in the same year the union was registered under the Trade Union Ordinance, which gave trade unions in Nigeria the statutory basis to engage in collective bargaining with their employers.
We read of how Imoudu’s leadership radicalized the union and pressed for higher wages, challenged casualisation and demanded improved working conditions for the workers. I could also recollect way back in 1978 when the Nigerian Labour Congress, under the leadership of Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, presented to Obasanjo’s military junta a Charter of Demands that, inter alia, sought the institutionalization of a national minimum wage and minimum pension scheme. To achieve its goal of getting the government to approve its demand, NLC embarked on a national strike in May 1981, which led the government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari to reach a truce with the congress. The issue has never been resolved once and for all and it does not seem to be capable of being resolved as the attitudes of the government at different levels to workers’ welfare do not seem to recognize that there is more to wage and salary payments than determining what should be the minimum wage. The workers themselves do not seem to realize that the perennial campaign for increase in wages to compete with the inflationary spiral in the economy can never be a solution to the crisis beleaguering their collectivity and the people without addressing other crucial issues.
The last and most recent one gave a shattering blow as it was a total paralysis on Monday and Tuesday, the 3rd and 4th days of June, 2024, when the strike called by the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress was joined by practically all labour unions across the country. The commanding heights of the economy were shut down allegedly together with the national grid by which the country was plunged into total darkness. The aviation workers would not be left behind as they promptly declared solidarity with their colleagues and shut down the airports across the country. Movement across Nigeria was stalled and all activities were grounded. While the government promptly engaged in discussions and negotiations with the labour leaders, there seemed to be no permanent truce as the workers first insisted on a minimum wage of over N400,000 but the government was offering a sum above N60,000. Both parties advanced arguments to justify their positions but the adequacy or otherwise of the standpoints of the parties is not so much of interest to me.
I say this because all the parties are ad idem as to that need for upward review but the area of contention is affordability and sustainability of the eventually agreeable sum. There must be a truce that would be capable of avoiding such a massive disruption of national lives again. As stated, I do not intend to dabble into the issue of whether it is necessary or not to increase minimum wage as there is no one in Nigeria today, the government inclusive, that is disputing this. However, the two most important areas of interest to me, as far as the predicament and welfare of workers are concerned, are the questions of career progression, security of tenure, casualization and relative productivity without which whatever amount is agreed as minimum wage will still fizzle into irrelevance over time.
These are more of interest to me than the wage review, which is equally a legitimate demand that inevitably must be done by the government and all employers of labour, as no labourer deserves to be condemned to penury while rendering services not adequately remunerated. Career progression is of utmost importance and the labour leaders and their rank and file must demand and insist on this as part of their charter of demands. Do not only fight for wage increase today only for you to start the campaign for security of career progression tomorrow. Since my days in government, I have always believed that Nigerian workers deserve the opportunity to progress to the peak of their careers. In the past and during the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s government in the Western Region of Nigeria, if a worker joined a parastatal or agency of government, he must be sure that with hard work and dedication he could grow to one day become the head of the agency or parastatal.
Up until of recent, this was the case and Nigerian workers enjoyed security of jobs with career expectations relatively assured in the absence of misconduct, which could justify a demotion or sack. This used to be the situation prior to this republic when the political class started hijacking the headships of the agencies and dashing out to their cronies and sycophants who are most times incompetent to effectively perform the responsibilities of the offices to which they are appointed. Sometimes, some of them were even recruited alongside the same workers they are meant to preside over, and who will then have to tutor them on how things are done upon ascendance. Some progress would still be recorded if such an impostor appointed over competent and trained civil servants is humble enough to learn under his betters but who are now his subordinates.
Where an egomaniac is the person appointed by the government to lead an office, crisis of ineffective performance would erupt. With the gradual evolution of the practice, which has now become entrenched, it has now become elusive for civil servants to attain the heights of their careers. Many workers retire as directors in their ministries never to ascend to the privileged office of permanent secretary. Most of their counterparts in the agencies and parastatals never rise beyond managerial level, exempting the headship. This could be frustrating to someone who has spent the whole of his life serving under a system that does not recognize adequate compensation and reward. Such headships have now become the preserves of politicians. The consequence of this is that there is hardly again any institutional memory in place, coupled with the saddling of the agencies with incompetent hands.
This is now breeding more corruption in the system as civil servants now compensate themselves with such insurance. The other area is further politicization of the headships of the agencies. In the glorious days of the country, only membership of boards is largely reserved for politicians. As things now degenerate, not only board and managerial positions are now allocated to politicians, even technical positions are allotted to them. Remember the case of the Nigerian Customs Service where a person with no background in customs service was imposed as the head, against the conventional officials. The Customs is yet to recover from the aberration. With the latter development, there is now so much instability in the governance of the agencies. Each successive government brings its own team on board, discarding those who had been there and were trained to achieve the purposes of the offices. Appointments are made for purely political reasons, regardless of the competence of such people. This is the precarious position of Labour in the governance of the country.
Issue of insecurity of tenure and casualisation of workers has become a permanent challenge. Many foreigners come into the country and engage our citizens as casual labourers whose interests are not protected beyond the miserable wages they are paid. This practice they inherited from the local executives (warlords) and seems unabating. This is a low hanging fruit that the labour needs to pluck.
Career stagnation is allied to workers oppression. When last were promotion exercises carried out in the civil service of many States of the Federation. When there are even promotion exercises, they are not backed up with commensurate increase in wages. A worker who has served for ten years without any form of promotion is definitely going to experience stagnation in productivity and may lead to mental depression. It is imperative that workers must be adequately guaranteed the right to existence that will adequately remunerate their contributions to the economy since we all know that what they do are indispensable to our collective development and progress as a people. In every human endeavour, progress remains a motivational tool.
Labour needs to insist that the employers carry out continuous evaluation and elevation of the employees with commensurate benefits attached, as and when due. Again, wages must be relative to productivity, signaling discriminatory salary regimes. Sectors where there is low productivity should not be compensated with excessive wages not commensurate with their contribution and productivity (See my columns in the Daily Sun of 31st October 2019 “Minimum wage, Nigerian workers and the issues https://www.sunnewsonline.com/minimum-wage-nigerian-workers-and-the-issues”).
Workers, while insisting on appropriate renumeration must simultaneously canvass productivity as a threshold. What is the essence of working in a place where productivity is on the decline or stagnant? It pays neither the workers nor the employees. Renumeration need to be tied to productivity, as this is the only way a country can progress. What this implies is that, wages will not only be discriminatory across sectors but the country at large. There is nothing absolutely untoward about this, and must be embraced. There are departments of government where workers turn up in the offices only to switch on the television and engage African Magic throughout the day.
One then wonders how an adult would leave his or her house in the morning only to come and watch films all through the day. There are instances of workers that only surfaces to sign attendance lists while some are permanent traders in the offices. Thus, it is imperative for wages to be commensurate with productivity. All these are relevant without saying that Nigerian workers should not earn livable wages. These issues, to my mind, are more pertinent to be addressed than even the salary increment that I concede is equally a necessity. These areas the unions need to prioritize in order for their struggles not to be permanent and recurrent.
This is not to say that there will be no more frictions between government and workers’ union even if these issues are addressed as conflicts are part of human natural existence, it is only safe to say that there are issues that are better addressed once and for all without sounding like a group without foresight.