The organised labour, led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), is insisting that President Bola Tinubu-led government is adopting the fire brigade approach to tackle the challenges facing the country. It is of the opinion that the president and his team must show capacity by implementing strategic plans or go back to the drawing board. CHRISTIAN APPOLOS, in this report, presents some of the reason the two labour centres share the above thought.
FROM the very first policy pronouncement of President Bola Tinubu declaring “The fuel subsidy is gone” in his inaugural address on May 29, 2023, to the promises of redirecting the money used for subsidy to other areas of the country’s economy and to palliatives to cushion the challenges of economic hardship occasioned by the subsidy removal, the organised labour made it a duty to call for caution, warning that the policies may rather throw workers and Nigerians at large into the abyss of economic quagmire.
The duo of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the series of meetings held with the Federal Government to negotiate for the fuel subsidy removal palliatives consistently said the government was not really sincere in its plans to implement its promises.
Again, after series of strike warnings, street protests across states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and couple of strikes in the last quarter of 2023, government signed an agreement with the NLC and TUC to implement certain policies aimed at alleviating the suffering of the citizens. Notable in the agreement are provision of CNG buses, wage award, new minimum wage, revitalisation of refineries starting from Port Harcourt refinery, etc.
While workers were expecting the implementation of the agreement, the issue of the continued free fall of the Naira was on the other hand dishing devastating blow to the purchasing power of all Nigerians and all hell seems to have been let loose on every facet of the economy, worsening the living condition of Nigerians.
Today, the organised labour is wailing about the non-implementation of the palliative agreement, minimum wage negotiation, incessant fall of the Naira, inflation, hike in prices of goods and services, unemployment, untold hunger, high level of insecurity and have decided to go on the streets across the federation to air their displeasure over the current economic hardship in the country.
Furthermore, their call for President Tinubu’s government to go back to the drawing board was loudly reechoed recently
At the 21st Daily Trust Dialogue held on January 25, NLC called on President Tinubu’s government to go back to the drawing board in addressing the challenges bedeviling the country. NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, had stated at the event that Nigerian workers and citizens at large are the ones losing out and suffering from the policies of the present government.
In his presentation, titled, ‘Tinubu’s Economic Reforms in Nigeria: Assessing Gainers and Losers,’ Ajaero said, “When policies come with the toga of reformation, it immediately adorns the garb of the pristine, creating the belief that it is geared towards generating better structures and platforms for social progress.
“Whether we can therefore call Tinubu’s economic policies reforms or deforms is completely dependent on the outcomes or impact of such policies on the people. For example, do the people have greater access to food and nutrition, decent housing, quality health care, or in general, has the quality of life of the citizenry improved both in the short, medium and in the long term or has it stagnated or worsened?
“Whether there is a coherent economic strategy by the present administration to deal with the challenges confronting our nation, given the absence of a discernible economic blueprint is another question altogether. Important to state is the fact that the key policy of the hasty hike in the price of petrol does not fit into the procedure for carrying out a reform, especially when we expect such reforms to have serious positive impact on the economy.”
The NLC president further listed some policy decisions of the present Federal Government within the nine months of its existence to include hike in the price of petrol, devaluation of the Naira, freeing the foreign exchange market to merge all the windows, fiscal expansion and increasing the debt stock through more borrowings.
Ajaero went on to say, “The economic policies implemented by the Tinubu government have had far-reaching consequences on the standard of living, particularly for workers, the vulnerable and those with fixed incomes.
“We urge the government to review some of its policies and seek creative ways to reduce the hardship on the growing army of the poor in Nigeria, support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, boost agricultural sector, take deliberate steps to encourage cottage industries dotting the nation’s landscape, pay workers a living wage to encourage productivity, provide incentives for struggling businesses in the organised private sector, get the publicly owned domestic refineries working to provide cheaper petroleum products, pursue the CNG alternatives, increase budget effectiveness, grow the domestic economy and purge itself of the growing number of corrupt public officials by ensuring that there is consequence for every act of the breach of public trust.
“Our nation is in dire straits and it is only by the leadership exhibiting more patriotism and thinking more of the citizens that they can craft policies that will lift our nation out of the doldrums. The World Bank has predicted a 3.3 percent growth in our economy this year. However, we can grow faster than this if we learn as a nation to put our food where our mouth is.
‘It will get hard before it gets better’ is a story we have heard over and over but the reality is that it has continued to get worse. Nigerians demand concrete, transparent and visible measures to arrest the continuous slide into deeper economic despondency, stabilise it then begin a push back and grow our economy.
“Let us grow our economy by putting our people once again at the centre of our economic policies and governance. That is why we are worried that our fears concerning the neoliberal policies of the government are becoming manifest. The spate of borrowings leveraging on future sales of our resources not only destroys our today but mortgages the future.
“The rate of poverty has increased tremendously, increasing desperation, suicide and japa have all become the lot of the masses. Politicians are inflating the budget to feather their nests and purchase luxury vehicles and items to live cozily to the detriment of our people and dear nation. Anybody that thinks this will continue without consequences is dwelling on illusion because it is clearly unsustainable.
“Any reform that does not deliberately reduce the cost of governance in Nigeria by at least 50 percent is deceptive. Any policy that awards humongous benefits to those in government allocating scarce public resources to live in opulence, build mansions, buy luxurious cars, treat themselves abroad while Nigerians die over common ailments in hospitals here, maintain long convoys, receive prayer alerts and all manners of spurious allowances while our people can barely scratch a survival can only be summarised as voodoo.
“Unfortunately, we do not see courage in actions that pillage the people rather we see cowardice in bowing to the pressures of foreign interests against that of your own people. That is not what reforms look like but it is exactly how the path to deforming a people and a nation looks like. We therefore strongly say that Tinubu’s economic policies have thus far deformed Nigerian workers, masses and indeed the nation’s economy.”
In the same vein, TUC, through its Deputy President who doubles as the National President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Comrade Tommy Etim Okon, said, “Let me say this with emphasis that there is also the need for Nigerian government to invest much on production and pay less attention to consumption.
“Economic policies are built to be sensitive. Any economic policy that is not sensitive is not realistic and will not be productive, that means it will end up working contrarily to the progress of the citizenry. When I mean sensitive, I mean that every economic policy should take cognisance of the operating environment.
“Nigeria economy is different from any other economy. Our culture and practices are different. So, any policy that does not take cognisance of the culture of the people, the way of that life of the people, the practices of the people and even the time use pattern of the people is bound to fail,” he said.
“A country that cannot control the value of its currency against the major currencies in the forex market will continue to suffer what is called somersaulting policy direction. The Nigerian situation is very close to that. Therefore, there is need for the President Tinubu-led government to go back to the drawing board.
“Government must spearhead an intentional and targeted effort to create an environment where job opportunities will thrive. Government must constructively and structurally start a new Nigeria where 21st Century required skills will promote job creation and economic growth. It can be done. It can be
achieved. Government must fight insecurity, criminality and other vices in the country by intentionally creating environment that offers our youth opportunity to live a decent and crime free life.”
