Federal Government has assured Nigerian workers of its resolve to conclude negotiations on the new national minimum wage before the end of the third quarter of 2018.
Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, gave the assurance in Abuja, during the opening ceremony of the 40th anniversary celebration of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), where some aggrieved workers chanted No, No, No, as part of efforts to vent their anger.
Ngige who doubles as deputy chairman of the New Minimum Wage Committee, explained that new national minimum wage negotiation chaired by Ama People, former Head of Services of the Federation, agreed on the timeline.
“By the second quarter of this year, the Nigeria Labour Advisory Council will be revived in consonance with the provisions of the ILO convention 144 on tripartite consultation. These and more are efforts made and being made by the government to guarantee a good employment relationship and fair Labour practices for its workers.
“In furtherance to the determination by the federal government to attain decent works agenda which involves opportunities for work that are productive and deliver a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, there have been overtime, three minimum wage reviews and currently, the tripartite committee on national minimum wage is set to review the current minimum wage. Memoranda are being received from relevant bodies and persons to enable the determination of a new minimum wage for the nation.
“It is pertinent to point out a misnomer that exist among the trade unions in their pursuit of their relative happiness in terms of industrial relations. Often, the workers through their respective trade unions do over step by dictating to the employers who to appoint or otherwise. This is not right.
“Workers cannot dictate to the employers how to run his business; also the employer has no business responsibility interfering with trade union affairs. There is the need for mutual respect in the nation’s industrial relations system to create an amicable industrial relations environment that will create wealth, sustainable development and growth for the good of all citizens,” the Minister said.
However in his presentation, the immediate past Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole argued that agitation for wage increase cannot transform to a decent life without provision of critical infrastructure and facilities.
Oshiomhole who was a former NLC observed that “contrary to my earlier thinking when I was much younger that what the movement need was to perfect the act of persuasion and negotiation and where that doesn’t work, to militantly challenge private capital and even the state to ensure that we have a living wage and all those benefits.
“Looking back I realized that what really determine the quality of life is not so much the amount of money that is transferred to you.
“What really determine the overall quality of life of citizens is about all the other facilities available beyond the walls of work. Your wages will not transform to a decent life if the health sector is hopeless, lecturers spend more time on strike than in the classrooms and education privatized and the ladder for upward mobility is destroyed. I came to the conclusion that those who are in power will never govern according to your own values.
“The position they take or the policy chooses they make are not the results of errors of judgement. They are the conscious decisions taken in order to ensure that a particular class gets more. So, government and governance is a bias act which decides who earns what and get what.
“Placards can moderate and force them to go back and restrategize. But placards will not change their value system, rather, they will go back and strategies on how best to continue to dominate and use the instrument of state to enrich the rich.
“Many of our politicians simply lack the capacity to engage the people which explains why rigging has continued to prosper.
While expressing support for revolutionary change, Oshiomhole observed that: “A system can only continue to flourish only to the extent that those who are negatively affected by that system choose to consolidate it. The day men and women rise in unison to challenge an oppressive order, that will be the beginning of the end of that order.
“I also know that there will be no day when men and women who are oppressed will agree to fight against oppression. If it is one man that believe that there should be a fight, let him stand up and be counted because as he moves on, somebody else might join and over time, a movement is formed.
“The challenges leadership is to inspire civil confidence that things are possible. I say to people that as if as a factory worker who has worked in the most subordinated position can be a Governor, those of you who have better background can be President,” Oshiomhole noted.
In his paper presentation, Attahiru Jega, former Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) noted that labour movement’s interest in governance should transcend fielding candidates for political offices through electoral politics, who presides over policy formulation and implementation, but also on how politics are conceptualized, how they are implemented and how beneficial they are for the Nigerian electorates.
“The Labour movement need to constantly pay attention to both who is being elected and the process through which they are being elected and once elected, the process through which they conduct the business of governing and the outcomes as the impact on the citizens.
“What this means is that the scope of engagement in the political and governance arenas is very wide with potential value addition in all sectors and attentions should not be limited, but be broad based and comprehensive.
“It is necessary for the Labour movement and the working people of Nigeria to intensify participation in the political and governance arenas, even while they work towards forming an effective party formations for electoral contestations and engagements.
“Workers must be mobilized to be engaged in this with a view to increasing and improving the integrity of the process. From advocacy and support for electoral reforms, to promoting and defending the autonomy and independence of the election management body.
“Workers must be mobilized to be engaged in policy and legislative advocacy and in putting pressure on elected executive and representatives to be responsible single and Responsive t the need and aspirations of the citizens. Labour movement need to play a leading role in this in partnership with credible civil society organizations. Doggedness, assertiveness and proactiveness are necessary for success.
“The Labour movement must not relent on engaging, dialoging, negotiating with and pressuring economic actors to accommodate and cater for the interest of workers in all fundamental aspects.”
He also urged Nigerian workers to take advantage of their individual and collective fundamental rights to either join, support their own political party to advance their collective interests and aspirations as workers and as citizens.
To achieve this, he observed that Labour leaders have an obligation to dispassionately study the context, weigh the pros and cons, act responsively and arrive at the best option possible.
“Those who come to equity must come with clean hands. Workers need a political platform, Labour leaders must create them with integrity, operate them on democratic principles and core values of correctiveness, transparency, accountability, selflessness and credible leadership cadre. Nothing less would attract the support and active involvement of the Nigerian working people. Nigeria workers deserve better than what has been offered to the. So far as a political platform for engagement in electoral politics,” Jega maintained.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
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