From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
For a labour leader who operates in the core civil service and with members cut across federal and state governments, it has not been an easy task to ensure that workers’ interest and demand are well communicated.
President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Tommy Okon aptly defined what workers are passing through at this period as being in bondage.
In this interview, he lamented the fate of Nigerian workers with weak purchasing power, and low morale, which he said would rub off on this year’s May Day celebration.
Okon speaks on how removal of fuel subsidy has dealt with the workers economy and further being incapacitated by the increase in the electricity tariff.
He also highlights efforts that the union has taken so far to bring succour to the workers including the present negotiation for the new minimum wage and why no employer can afford to default on payment.
Excerpts:
Economic Situation
Well, I think the socio-economic challenges have put Nigerian workers in bondage. In bondage in the sense that their purchasing power is weak, and it has also given Nigerian workers low morale, and the psychological effect is that it has not given Nigerian workers the impetus to put in their best, because they are battling how to overcome the economic stress vis-a-vis family stress and extended family stress, and that is not best enough for any economy that wants to get out of the wood.
So, it is a situation that is very worrisome. Very worrisome, because Nigerian workers are supposed to be agile with good expectations, good package and a good welfare scheme. But the reverse is the case.
Past one year
It has been very turbulent. Turbulent in the sense that they have been denied their right of belonging to the society. Since they do not have what it takes, to combat the economic challenges, especially with the removal of the fuel subsidy. That fuel subsidy removal is the problem, and because of that, it has affected the workers, and because it has affected the workers, it has also affected their purchasing power. It has also affected them psychologically. So, within the last one year, it has been a very turbulent situation for Nigerian workers.
Not only Nigerian workers, but, Nigerian workers and their families. Because, whatever happens in the world of work, has a spillover effect, positively or negatively, to the larger family. And that is what Nigerian workers have gone through for the past one year since the removal of the fuel subsidy. In fact, since the coming of this administration.
Weathering the storm
Well, you know, we have to hold the opinion of our members. We also have to give them hope. Like you saw, how we were able to engage the government to move from N25,000 wage award to N35,000, and we have been carrying out advocacy for them to know that we are not totally in support of government policies that are tilted towards impoverishing the workers and the Nigerian masses.
We have been drumming that and also pressing on the state governments to come up with palliatives that will also cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy.
The recent one, is the increase in electricity tariff, which has also added burden, serious one, on the household. Not just on the workers, but on the masses. So, this is a situation that one does not expect to happen because we were just battling the removal of fuel subsidy, and before you knew it, government came up again with another policy of removing tariff in electricity from 66 Naira kilowatt per hour to N225 per kilowatt for Band A. Which to us, even when they say Band A, if you buy a unit now for 10,000, you would discover that you are still having a very big shortfall. It is not supposed to be.
So, it therefore means that all the Bands are affected. So, it has not been a rosy of time, and we are just trying to ensure that we engage the government to see the reason why certain policies cannot be implemented without stakeholders’ engagement, which is the norm and how it is supposed to be.
Inflation and salary increase
There is never a time that you will not see inflation. Today, Nigerian worker is taking home N30,000. And you can see the level of inflation. So, it is not the salary increase that causes inflation. It is inability of government to manage the economy, to come up with good fiscal policies that makes the inflationary rate to be high.
Even with what is going on now, that the dollar is really coming down to N1,200, it has no effect on the goods and services. So, increase in workers’ salary has no business. What of other agencies that are earning humongous salaries? I mean, if people look at, “is it the right time? Do workers not go to the market to buy things, even with the rate of inflation now? So, we do not subscribe to such kinds of talks because I see that as very unpopular opinion.
Ability to pay by state governments
You see, you are talking of the thing of the past. As at that time, was there removal of foreign subsidy? Do you know how much they make now? The money that are accrued to them now from the removal of fuel subsidy is so much that they do not even know what to do with the money.
So, they cannot justify their inability to pay 30,000 with what is happening now, because, as at that time, one may excuse them, but they are not excusable today, because of so much money they make, the allocation they are getting from the federal is enough.
And what happened to their internal revenue generation? But because a lot of them have become lazy, only waiting for federal government, and that is why they are allowing insecurity to take over their states. Because they have hoped that at the end of the month, they will come to FAAC and get money. But if there is nothing like FAAC, all of them will sit at home, control the security, go into farming, and then open a lot of mass land for mechanise farming, and a lot of people will be gainfully employed and they will have a lot to eat, export, and to spend.
So, there is no moral or legal justification to say that they cannot pay 30,000. We do not even need to talk about 30,000, because it is annoying for anybody to say they will not be able to pay. But they are able to use security vote when there are issues because it is not accounted for.
How many aids do they have? How much do they pay? Some of them are paying 500,000 per aid. Do you know how much will be the minimum wage once it is agreed on? No, they have to pay. It is a condition they have to pay.
You know, when government agree on the minimum wage, they are also conditioned precedents. And there is also going to be a policy direction, the act will be there. And it will also give punishment, well spelled out in written form to any government that will not want to pay. Because as we speak, the committee has a combination of governors from the states. So once it is agreed upon, why not? So, we do not even need to talk about 30,000.
It is annoying for us to be reminded that some state governors did not pay. And you know, our members cut across states. Then we also have representatives all over the states. We have state chairmen of TUC, we have secretary and so on. In my association, we also have state secretaries all over the states and they are engaging government. And they cannot fail in that direction.
Scorecard of government
Well, you know, one thing is to come into power. Another thing is what you see in power. You may have a very good plan of action when you are doing your electionary campaign. But that does not justify your capacity until you get into the field. It is just like watching a football match. You think you can play well. But when you get into the field, it is then that will determine whether you can play well.
In the past one year, it has been policy and policy summersault. But we cannot score the government based on this one year. But what we have seen on ground, because already they came into office unprepared. And they are meeting a situation on ground that is deeper than their written manifesto.
So let us see the extent they are going. But I can tell you that we the workers are not happy with what we are seeing, the free fall of the naira, then the removal of fuel subsidy, then the increase of tariffs on electricity. These are policies that we need to look at it critically.
Expectations
The area we need to see a lot of reforms are; the fiscal and financial policies. Then our export and import. I think the Ministry of Trade and Investment needs to do a lot of magic.
Then, the Ministry of Transport needs to live up to expectations, especially land transportation. If you recall that with the removal of the fuel subsidy, government hammered on the CNG buses, which is supposed to be a measure to reduce the suffering of the masses. That has not been floated in the streets. So, we look forward to seeing that.
We look forward to seeing improvement in the transportation system.
And in all, we need to see drastic improvement on security situation in the country. The insecurity is becoming alarming, and that has given some people the boldness, to join the league of kidnapping, organ harvesting and all that. You can imagine, I just read in a paper, 20 children who were kidnapped, released, with 34 children. That is forceful marriage, all in the name of being a slave in the country.
So, those are areas the government needs to really look at, the insecurity situation. And the constitution needs to be amended. The cost of governance has to be holistically addressed, not sectional.
If you want to address it, address the executive, address the judiciary, and ensure that the constitution is amended, to take care of this. These are the reforms we need to see. Once these reforms are there, and the will to implement it are there, I think then, Nigeria will be better.
Mood of May Day
The theme of this year’s May Day is straightforward. It is the people first, the workers first. Why, because labour is in all the factors of production. Labour plays the central role. It is a pillar that controls every other factors. Even if you break the best of technologies today, it is the workers that will punch it to work and so on.
Even when you are bringing in artificial intelligence, it cannot wake up and start working. Somebody must press a button. So how would you expect workers to be happy with the burden? With the socioeconomic challenges? With the low purchasing power? With the inflation we are talking about? So, we are just going to celebrate to mark the ritual and then still believe that if government is doing the right thing, there is hope or what they call, there will be light at the end of the tunnel. But we want the light to start from the tunnel so that when we get to the end, maybe we will see a brighter light rather than just still seeing darkness. So,when it comes to the mood generally, it will be marked with mixed feelings.
Repositioning ASCSN
Well you know, when we came on board, we were able to study and follow our rule of engagement very differently. We engaged government scientifically. Instead of being violent, we engage again. If you recall, when over 17,000 workers, were delisted from the IPPIS, we brought them back without violence because of strategic engagement, collective bargaining and social dialogue.
We adopted that methodology and it paid off. If you also notice the 40% peculiar allowance for core civil service, we initiated that with the government and we ensured that it was implemented.
So, we have done our best and this association happens to be the first affiliate to have had audience with the president of the country, during the course of the former president.
So, within that period, we had a good engagement and a lot of things are coming, lined up and we make also good use of our organs in arriving at decisions, which is something we cannot toy with.
Fighting corruption
Let me tell you, every economy, whether developed economy or developing economy, has corruption. But what is important is our ability to contain it without being selective, because for anyone to have committed corruption, as the case may be, there are thousands of people walking around the street who were partners in the crime. There are cabals among the elites that are perpetrating it. Do you have a common man that will go and hijack ship in the high sea or doing oil bunkering, stealing our crude? It is not done by the poor.
It is done by the mafia in the system. And that is the mainstay of Nigerian economy. If Nigeria wants to fight corruption, they know how to go about it.
Corruption is not the problem. Now look at what is a monster, insecurity, which they know face to face. It is not spirit, it is human.And they cannot contain it. And they are deviating to look at another length of it, which is scientific. What of those who are on physical combat that they will see and turn their faces or only go to a scene when those kidnappers have gone? You will see them running around everywhere.
You were in this country, when they broke Kuje prison, and when they went, you see a lot of people going to visit there. Nigeria should stop chasing shadows and face those they know that are perpetrating this evil to bring our nation down. They should contain them.
They should amend our judicial system to give teeth to those who commit these crimes and deal with it squarely. Otherwise, the other innocent people will be encouraged to join. When they see people making huge monies from kidnapping and getting away with it.
Where are those systems in those days, before you are given one money, they will mark the money and be able to track you? Have they lost the sense of tracking, intelligent gathering? There is no way you can steal money without connivance. Because the memo that will move from one table to the other, they will know that this thing is a process of getting something illegal.
And again, on the issue of budgeting, somebody raised an alarm on budget padding, and nobody wants to talk about it. So it is a systematic thing. It is not a one-man thing. So, if government wants to stop corruption, they will stop it. If government wants to stop kidnapping, they will stop it. If government wants to stop any form of insecurity, it will not take them a day to stop it.
Because they know who are perpetrating it. Now, you have what they call NIN, and somebody still calls you to scam you, and nobody can trace that. Because it is expected, any call is supposed to be monitored. That is what is expected from them. Now, if you say you have satellite, and a crime is committed, over 200 school children are taken, yet you come and tell us that you do not know where they are. Where did they pass? Let us leave the one that is executive corruption that passes through. The one on the physical side, that you have checkpoint, do they load them into a truck? Do they carry them on motorcycles? Nobody sees? So the government lacks the willpower to contain this.
Not that they do not know what to do, but because maybe one or two of those that they used for election are involved. they are afraid of their secret.
Fate of workers at retirement
You know, retirement is every body’s business. You need to plan for your retirement the very day you join the service. You do not wait until it is a year to go. You must plan your retirement the very day you enter service. That is my advice. Do not wait until 35 years or 60 years. Do not wait for money from retirement to build your own house. You will not finish it. You may end up building incomplete building. Do not wait until retirement. You will now plan how to enjoy your retirement life.The money you get from your Pension administration will not be able to sustain you. Also think of going into farming or any other good venture that the rule of your employment allows. Do not wait until when you retire and you now carry portfolio and be begging for contracts that you do not even have an idea of how to execute. You can die before you time. That is a recipe for stroke.