Comrade Joe Ajaero is the president of United Labour Congress (ULC), also a former deputy president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), in this exclusive interview with INIOBONG IWOK, spoke on workers’ expectations from President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term in office, Nigeria’s democracy, 2019 election, among other issues in the polity. Excerpts:
President Muhammadu Buhari has just been sworn-in for a second term in office; is your union happy with his policies towards labour in his first tenure?
Yes, I will give him a pass mark in the sense that federal workers under him are not owed four or five+ months’ salaries, and I know that he gave the states bailout funds to pay workers but unfortunately some of these state governors misapplied the funds.
The minimum wage was increased and we did not see too much sack under his watch; so, to a large extent, when you check other presidents before him, you would give him a pass mark.
What is your view about the controversy that trailed the Presidential election; Atiku is in court?
The election has come and gone; a winner has emerged; the opposition is challenging the result of the election which is allowed in democracy.
However, the electoral processes seem not to be different from what happened in 1999; twenty years ago, in terms of the snatching of ballot boxes, use of money and the introduction of card reader.
There is no much different from twenty years ago and this year; the electoral body should have known that all those lapses discovered four years ago should have been corrected. Today, we are still parading big names; it is not a stage where people emerged based on credibility. I think the electoral body has a lot to do in terms of electoral reforms; that is what the late Yara-Adua was trying to do. If there is a legacy Buhari wants to hand over to Nigeria, I think he should do something about the electoral process.
The issue of one man one vote went with Jonathan; Jonathan bequeathed that legacy to Nigeria; that you can defeat an incumbent and he leaves power honourably. Buhari should call for reform of the electoral process.
Are you saying we have not made any progress in recent times?
There has not really been any; even the card reader issue has not been resolved. We started the process in 2015, but we can see that not much progress has been made. The Level of litigation seems to be increasing; it shows that impunity is taking over the electoral process. Look at what happened in Zamfara State; imposition is becoming a norm in Nigeria. In Imo State we saw what APGA did and suddenly a candidate was imposed on them across the party in the state. They were imposing candidates without going through the process of primaries; to me it is not something to celebrate.
Since the parties have decided to be imposing unpopular candidates, you can see that most of them are losing elections. Yes, in twenty years after democracy governance, I will tell you that democratically, nothing is happening in the country apart from conducting elections.
Lecturers are always in strike, if you go to the roads nothing is there, electrify is the same. When Obasanjo was there he was able to repair some power plants, the former Minister Liyel Imoke made that move and we were able to achieve 4,000 megawatts, but today we are down to 2,000 megawatts. So, for me, twenty years after gaining democratic rule in terms of governance, we have moved from bad to worse. No new jobs are created, the unemployment rate is high, inflation is also high and the naira to dollar ratio is high. What you can buy twenty years ago with twenty thousand is almost with thirty thousand now; so, where is the result of governance?
Are you saying the recent election was not free and fair?
I can’t talk about the election being free and fair, but I can tell you we were too parochial, whether they were enough to declare the election not free and fair I don’t know; but I can say there were problems.
The court and INEC must do their own work, some of these issues, the process, the irregularities have continued, there is need for us to address that, so that it would not be part of our culture.
What informed the setting up of ULC?
Firstly, we pulled out from NLC after a massively rigged and manipulated union’s election. After the guildlines for the election was released, some people emerged; some people were disqualified at the floor of the conference centre where it was held.
All the people that were disqualified were asked to come and run again for NLC positions. We had an initial understanding that we would rotate power between the private sector and the public sector, anyway all the people there before Oshiomhole left were all in the public sector. When he left the most vibrant unionists then were from the private sector.
But when Adulwaheed Omar left again, all the unions in the country met again and said this is the time for the private sector. I came up against NUPENG man in the presidential election, but they said one Ayuba Wabba from the medical and health workers union also filled form.
That was how we started. They said they have decided to change the contest and then we had the greatest manipulation.
They decided to change the contest too; ballot papers in booklet; you would see Ajaero in a paper and in another ballot paper, meanwhile the one you are seeing Waba had reference no, but it was not in my own.
So, the voters who understand would just go and tear the ballot paper which is in three; so it means he scored three votes from one paper.
Meanwhile, by the time they tally the votes you would see that Ajaero’s does not even have a reference number and you would think it is what make it more authentic or I am the one doing the rigging.
So, because they noticed that a lot of people complained about the irregularities, that was how that election was cancelled. Another date was fixed for another election; on the day of the election all the unionists came from different parts of Nigeria; there were delegates from other regions; especially the North but there was no delegate from the South.
Meanwhile, they had over 500 delegates; their assumption was that any delegate you pick from the South would vote for Ajaero, the delegates were from different unions in the country.
And based on that we had a tribalised union, where you bring people from your village to come and vote for you. But in spite of all these irregularities, I still emerged; but for three days they refused to announce the result of the election; my agents were attacked and arrested.
Based on the vote cast, agents were coming to congratulate us, but after that they took light from the eagle square were the election been held and manipulated the election.
We had to take that bold step, we started as a faction of NLC but we realised that the faction of NLC was not helping us I sense that.
Meanwhile, at that time there was increase in petroleum products prices by the Federal Government; we could not put our house in order and my brother Wabba said he could not hold meeting with me, so I was not with him on his action. That was how we failed to agree and the whole country has to pay for the current fuel price increase.
Is the union recognised by the government?
We have been recognised, but we have not been licensed. It takes a process, like the example of the TUC; it takes 27 years for them to be given a certificate. That does not mean they are not recognized; the law is clear; if you have twenty seven unions, you can form a union. To be a labour centre, you must have a constitution and have executives and begin to operate until such a time; that is what we have done.
How would you react to the allegation that your union is pro-government?
If some people are saying that, look at them very well; we are independent people in the private sector; our action does not have any influence from the government.
What areas should Buhari place priority in this second term?
He should focus on everything because during his first term I am not sure we concluded any area. Insecurity is a major problem in Nigeria; if you don’t defeat the current state of insecurity it would defeat all of us and make us say bye-bye to Nigeria.
Hunger may not dissolve Nigeria, poverty may not dissolve Nigeria, lack of social amenities may not dissolve Nigeria, but this current arms struggle for whatever may be the reason that may dissolve Nigeria. By the time you see some other people picking up arms to defend themselves, by the time you see some underground movement, people contesting for space to defend themselves, people armed then it will be too bad for the country.
If the country security apparatus is finding it difficult to defeat Boko-Haram by extension Fulani herdsmen then it means if there are two others of such organisations it will be overwhelming to them especially if they are not located anywhere.
The President should quickly address the issue of insecurity; people can’t go to their farms because of fear of being abducted by the Fulani herdsmen and the implication of that is during the next season we may not have enough food from the farms.
By the time hunger starts to affect us we would know that there is a problem. I have some Nigerian friends who say that they may not enter Nigerian roads again because they are not secured.
For over two months now we have been looking for my niece, who entered a bus from Osun en-route, Ibadan to Ikorodu, she is a serving corper, her line is currently being used by a Fulani man; the situation is not funny at all people are living in fear; it can’t continue this way.
You are also the head of electricity workers union; what is your view about the privatisation of the power sector some years back against the growing agitation by Nigerians for government to revisit that exercise?
My view on that is known publicly; the privatisation was fraudulently conducted. Since then there have been tariff increases. If government had given NEPA such tariff there would have been increase in power supply. But look at what is happening now, everybody is keeping silent and they say government is still controlling 40 percent of Power Holding Company; so, can you see that it is fraud we are seeing? Some of us opposed the privatisation effort at the risk of our lives; if this is what Nigerians want so be it, but it would come to a level that Nigerians would not be able to bear it again. This is because the power companies are only after maximising profit. In the last four years, no power plant has been constructed by the investors; at what return of investment will they do that? Because it would take you 10-25 years to build power plant and it would also take you 10–15 years to recoup your investment.
Some state governors have said they can’t pay the new minimum wage; how would you react to that?
There are some state governors that say they would pay, some said they would not; we have equally noted some levels of compliance. Look at what is happening in Zamfara State; the governor is paying 7,500 as minimum wage. The labour leaders there are not talking because it would look as if they are opposing their brother, so they are collecting the amount. If you watch, it was the same immediate past Zamfara State governor that was leading others to say they would not pay N30, 000 minimum wage because he knew he can’t move from N7, 500 to N30, 000. He collaborated with some workers to be paying N7, 500. Lagos State also was not paying N18, 000 minimum wage; I challenge them to come out with proof that the workers on level one were being paid N18, 000 minimum wage.
This is not about resources; it is about priority and being worker-friendly. Edo was paying N25, 000 when it was N18, 000 and Edo is not known to be oil producing state, it is because they appreciate the value of a worker.
