5 reasons why Nigerians are afraid to come out and support NLC strike action
President Muhammadu Buhari is fortunate a good number of Nigerians are on his side regarding the removal of the fuel subsidy
The Industrial Court ruled against the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) from embarking on any strike
The discordant tune among the labour leaders has made the strike action embarked upon on Wednesday, May 18 unsuccessful in some parts of the country
Despite the ruling of the Industrial Court that the nation’s labour unions should not go on strike on Wednesday, May 18, some members of the labour body still went ahead. The question to ask first is why did the NLC embark on the strike action? The plausible answer to this is that they wanted to prove their mettle.
READ ALSO: Business as usual as NLC strike flops in Rivers state
Currently, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is split into two factions, namely the Comrade Ayuba Wabba led-faction and the Comrade Joe Ajaero-led faction. While the former faction wanted workers to down tool, the latter faction washed its hand of anything like a strike action.
The reasons why Nigerians do not want any strike are given below:
1. The January 1, 2012 strike action experience
Nigerians were highly moved to support the leadership of the national presidents of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), when the government of Dr Goodluck Jonathan removed fuel subsidy on January 1, 2012. Nigerians came out in droves, especially those who converged on Freedom park at Ojota, Lagos state, for more than five days.
Comrade Abdulwahid Omar, national president of the NLC and Comrade Peter Esele, national president of the TUC got the support of millions of Nigerians regarding the strike of that period. However, the labour leaders led Nigerians to the garden path, by backing out of the strike at the eleventh hour, making all the sacrifices made by Nigerians to be an exercise in futility.
The experience of that time is what has made some Nigerians to passionately detest the labour unions in Nigeria.
2. Factionalisation of the labour union
A house divided against itself will definitely not stand. In the words of Comrade Ajaero on Tuesday, May 17 regarding why the strike is totally not needed. He said there were some ulterior motives from his co-faction members, calling the pulling down of tools by workers as totally wrong.
Quoting the factional NLC national president verbatim, he said:
“So, we will wait for our group to meet. But definitely, it appears that by ideology and every other thing, we can no longer meet. We thought we should have managed this in the interest of Nigerians but from the look of things, it appears we have to go our different ways.
“We have condemned the increase and called for negotiation and reversal. It was on the basis of our calls that this meeting was summoned for us to meet and find the way forward.
“If we wanted to be serious about an action, you can’t call for an action on Wednesday (May 18). It is only an action that is sold out that is called for Wednesday so that by Friday, you say you have strike lethargy and call it off.”
READ ALSO: Benin records partial compliance of NLC strike
Due to this factionalisation, Nigerians see NLC as an unserious labour body.
3. The romance between labour leaders and the government
Most members of the NLC are stooges of the government. They are at the beck and call of political office holders. They have sold their souls just for a pot of porridge. Most of them no longer fight for the poor and suffering masses. This is totally unacceptable.
In advanced countries of the world, there is no labour body that supports the government on a policy which does not not favour the citizens. On the other hand, labour union members in Nigeria support the government, even when they know government’s policy will bring hardship on the citizens.
4. Nigerians want to give the federal government a trial
The current administration is very fortunate to be in the good books of majority of Nigerians. The government has used this a lot to its advantage. Therefore, Nigerians want to give the Buhari-led government more time. This is why only a small percentage of the citizens want labour to strike.
5. Fuel subsidy removal will no more be an excuse
All previous governments have hidden under the canopy of fuel subsidy to bring about growth and development of the nation’s economy and better the lives of the people.
The excuse of fuel scarcity is always said to be the reason why government has been paying trillions to subsidise the petrol Nigerians buy. Since, subsidy has now gone, Nigerians want to see what will happen in a few days time, regarding getting pure motor spirit (PMS) with ease from filling stations. Therefore, they see no reasons participating or supporting any strike action.
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