By Bimbola Oyesola
The major challenging problem confronting the food sector, according to the President of the Food Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association, (FOBTOB), Jimoh Oyibo is the difficulty to access raw materials by the industries. Oyibo expressed that the problem was now more pronounced by the issue of insecurity which government is battling to provide solution to.
The FOBTOB President sees the problem confronting the sector, not only of the employers but equally of the workers who cannot progress without the advancement of the sector.
Lamenting the state of the economy, he charges government to provide enabling environment for business to thrive. He also charges the incoming government to turn the economy around, provide succour for Nigerians, and other issues of national interest.
Excerpts:
Challenges in one year
We have been facing a lot of challenging issues that has to do with raw materials. For some years now, the issue of insecurity has also deprived farmers from going to the farm. And when they do not go to farms, it means that there would be no food or raw materials. We have just been managing to stay afloat.
The issue of forex is also biting harder. I have said in some of my interviews that while dollar is resident in the hands of individuals, cooperate bodies that are meant to use it for import do not have the forex.
Plight of workers
As partners in the business, we are all going through pain. Ours is not just come and earn salaries, it is for us to grow the business. If the business is not growing, our members would also not progress.
Because of the challenges we are experiencing from import and lack of forex, some of these companies have on their own embarked on backward integration to ensure that they do not solely rely on import.
Government role
First thing is security. It is very important. Where there is no security, nothing thrives. If the issue of herdsmen-farmers clash, kidnapping and Boko Haram are curtailed, that would go a long way.
Furthermore, the nation has been import-dependent for a very long time. It is high time the government began to think about going back to land so that we can produce enough to feed this nation and export. Look at Israel that is a rocky country, they plant, feed their nation and have enough to export, talk more of a country like Nigeria that even without the application of fertilizer any plant grows.
My advice to the government is to give us the enabling environment for business to thrive and in giving us that, the issues of security must be tackled, forex must be made available to those that need them.
Review of workers condition in past one year
In the food sector, we have zonal meetings and NEC meetings. Zonal meetings has to do with the northern, eastern and western zone. This platform provides the opportunity for us to interact and see how we can collaborate with employers to turn the system to favour both parties.
The effect of the state of the economy on our members is terrible. Particularly the issues of naira redesign. At a point, TUC and NLC issued a threat to shut down the economy completely should the scarcity continued. That was when the leaders of the CBN approached us and pleaded for more time to resolve the situation.
May Day Celebration
For me, there is nothing to celebrate. How can one celebrate when he is unable to provide food for his family, when businesses are closing up, when companies are retrenching workers and so on? This year’s May Day calls for a sober reflection and this is a clarion call to both workers and employers to continue to partner and see how best we can come out of this quagmire.
Government’s role and minimum wage
I do not encourage the issue of raising the minimum wage, it is the value of what they get that should really be considered. There was a time when people were earning less than N30,000 but then the value of the money then could do a lot of things. If the government can come up with policies that can strengthen the naira, even the current minimum wage of N30,00 would be sufficient to provide for the family.
Agenda for new government
The new government should sit and deliberate how best to restructure the system, because as it is now, there is no competition in the system. Another issue is that our constitution is barely serving any purpose, I think it should be reviewed or better still a fresh constitution should be created.
Also, the idea of winner takes it all should be abolished, that all political appointments would be given to members of one party. If there are Nigerians that are good in a particular field, they should be assigned the responsibility so that Nigerians would feel the impact of that office.
The incoming president should not assign positions to individuals that cannot handle its responsibility simply because they assisted in his victory as president. Also, immediately they assume office, they should hit the ground running by bring technocrats into the system to ensure Nigerians feel the effect of the government.
‘Japa’ syndome and unemployment
The real question is why are the youths leaving. Some People are fed up with this system and they feel that they have to go somewhere to get succor. Just recently I was at the immigration office and the population of people seeking passport to leave this country was disheartening.
An average Nigerian is not thinking of staying in this country any longer. That is what we have degenerated into. These are people that would have stayed in this country, create wealth and then probably become employers of labour, but unfortunately, they are leaving in their numbers.
It is so bad that the leaders and the political class are not bothered about the welfare of its citizens, their interests is to acquire power, wealth and use them to torment and oppress people.
Social security
The government cannot give what they do not have. The system does not encourage social security. The advance democracy can afford to do that because over time, the system has been prepared for it. But here in Nigeria, you have not even been able to feed the nation and you are talking of social security.
Nigeria has no program for that. It is either the family is taking care of them or such vulnerable individuals like the aged and mentally challenged in the society are left to their fate.
Organising and Casualisationn in FOBTOB
We have not been doing so badly, right from when we came onboard, we have been able to organize some companies, and we are looking forward to more.
Again, some of these companies may not want their staffs to be members of the union, for that reason, they try to seclude themselves. We are still going round to see how we can bring them up.
On the issue of outsourcing, sometime last year, we approached the federal ministry of labour with the need to come up with a guideline so that they too could be integrated into the system. We did that, but unfortunately, the minister has not been around to see the level of progress that we have made because whether we like it or not, his assent is very important.
The aim is to integrate any worker performing a core job into the system. Those who cannot be integrated into the mainstream would be given the platform with which they would be organized and they would have a body that would bargain on their behalf.
Outgoing government
They are far below average. Therefore, the incoming government should try all their possible best to make sure that the experience we had should not be repeated otherwise many of the industries would go into extinction.