Government and Organised Labour’s chess game

Last week, our master chess player was at his game again and following the trends, he is hard to beat. President Muhammadu Buhari’s cards are always close to his chest, leaving one guessing all the time.

The corridor of power was quiet most of the time this week, leaving one wondering what exactly Mr. President was brewing.

In focus is the labour issue, the ongoing strike by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). You need to know the game to beat the NLC at theirs and that was how the President sent Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, an ex-labour leader, to be the chief mediator.

While I do not stand for the reversal of the price deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector (assuming it is in fact, a proper deregulation and not a mere petrol price hike), I am up for the increase in the minimum wage and for boosting infrastructures. Privatise the refineries if that would improve their efficiency and increase local refining.

The labour leaders, rather than push for just that, allowed the government to feed on the cracks within the unions. Because of the divisions within organised labour, the government used that to its advantage, hence the weakened impact of the industrial action. I hope it does not backfire. Let me explain a bit. How do you go to negotiations in factions under the same union?

There were two factions negotiating with the Federal Government’s team. There is the ‘renegade’ Joe Ajaero’s faction and then the legally recognised Ayuba Wabba’s NLC leadership.

The inability of the NLC to resolve its internal crises provided an opening for the government to infiltrate its ranks. The reasonable part of the bargain would be to ask for more pay or a better welfare package for members. But they went with two different offering plates.

Who would you have rather listened to? The government had to make its choice and it chose the group more amenable to talks and also that’s best suited to its objective of breaking the strike.

Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, who headed the negotiation team, said government had the right to talk with whoever they wanted to. In other words, whichever group serves their purpose. It couldn’t have been clearer than this!

The divisions in the NLC began after its March 2015 delegates’ conference where Ayuba Wabba was elected as the national president.

His opponent, Joe Ajaero, rejected the results and also declared himself president. Efforts by concerned parties, including Governor

Oshiomhole to broker a truce, failed.

Government played the two cards, looking to choose the most favourable and Ajaero and his group saw an opportunity too. A few other unions including the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) headed by

Ajaero, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of

Nigeria (PENGASSAN), amongst others backed Ajaero. NLC President, Wabba, and his executive refused to sit in the same room with the other factional leaders and rightly so.

President Wabba insisted government reversed the price as the first step to negotiations. But of course, Ajaero’s group ‘selfishly’ jumped on the government’s offer. This has left me wondering if they are actually fighting a just cause. Why can’t labour leaders, who claim to be fighting on behalf of Nigerian workers, shelve their egos and personal ambition and put their house in order for the good of their members- millions of workers across the country?

Well, another trump card played obviously by the President was that of procuring a court injunction from the Industrial Court to stop the labour unions from proceeding on strike. In time past, Oshiomhole would have called that a black market injunction. It did not smell nice that while negotiating with a group, or groups as the case may be, you rush to court to get a ruling stopping the strike. While the Attorney-General of the Federation and Ngige, explained that the government’s team had decided to get the injunction as the body language of one of the factions did not look favourable. I found it ironic and ludicrous as they were getting a taste of their own medicine.

Meanwhile, as a fall out of the deregulation issue, there was a dearth of laughter at the Presidential Villa as staff (except journalists who would always find something to laugh about) also complained of the new pump price and the hike in prices.

On a lighter note, there was a mild drama at the Federal Executive Council Chambers, just before the President walked in to commence the

meeting. Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, the class monitor, tried to call the ministers to order.

Some took their seats while others were still exchanging banters as usual before the President walked in. In his usual stoic manner, the SGF called out to the Niger Delta Minister, Usani Usani, to take his seat and stop behaving like…

Then he turned his attention to Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum, taking a swipe at him.

“There is no fuel and you are shaking hands,” he said in his usual bully tone.

The other ministers sharply turned their gaze at him in shock. He didn’t mind the presence of the press corps in the room. Finally, he has their attention. Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde

Fashola, tried in vain to lighten the atmosphere, quipping that there is fuel everywhere. But the damage had been done.

After getting the cabinet members’ undivided attention, he blurted out something about the meeting going to be a brief one as the President’s schedule was already full.

“So for those grammar people, there will be no grammar today,” he retorted.

While Mr. Lawal probably needs a couple of lessons in professionalism, he sure knows how to make a noisy cabinet of ministers quiet.