An aircraft carrying Malawi’s Vice-President, Saulos Chilima and nine others has been declared missing. A statement from the office of the president said that the Defence Force aircraft “went off the radar” after it left the capital, Lilongwe, today, June 10. The president ordered a search and rescue operation after aviation officials were unable to contact the aircraft. It was supposed to land at Mzuzu International Airport, in the country’s north, just after 10:00 local time (11:00 BST). Other passengers on the flight include Chilima’s wife, Mary, and a number of officials from the vice-president’s United Transformation Movement (UTM) party. After being told of the incident by Defence Force’s commander, Malawian President, Lazarus Chakwera cancelled his scheduled flight to the Bahamas. “The public will be updated of any developments on the situation as facts are established,” the president’s office said. The reason for the aircraft’s disappearance is not yet known, General Valentino Phiri told Chakwera. Moses Kunkuyu, Malawi’s information minister, told the BBC efforts to find the aircraft are “intensive.” Chilima was on his way to represent the government at the burial of former cabinet minister Ralph Kasambara, who died three days ago. Prior to his political career, he held key leadership roles in multinational companies like Unilever and Coca Cola. Chilima, aged 51, has been vice-president of the southern African country since 2014. He is married with two children. Source: BBC.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has described state governors who are saying that they cannot pay N62,000 as the new national minimum wage as lazy ones. Speaking today, June 10, at the ongoing International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Ajaero conpared the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki who has been paying N70,000 as minimum wage to the state civil servants to other governors that are giving excuses.
The labour leader asked other governors to emulate Governor Obaseki and stop being lazy.
“Where is the governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki getting his money from (to pay N70,000 as minimum wage)? He is paying N70,000 minimum wage. This is the type of governor that should be emulated and not the lazy ones.” The NLC President said: “how can any governor say he cannot pay? They cannot also be calling for the decentralization of the minimum wage. “Are there wages decentralized? Governors whose states are not contributing a dime to the national purse and who generate pitiable Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) are collecting the same amount as governors whose states are generating billions of dollars into the FAAC. “They should decentralize their salaries and emoluments first.”
Ajaero said that the organized labour will not resume the nationwide strike tomorrow or soon because President Bola Tinubu has not made official pronouncement on the outcome of the report that had been presented to him. “We cannot declare strike now because the figures are with the President.” He said that the tripartite committee’s proposals are awaiting the President’s decision and the NLC’s National Executive Council will deliberate on the new figure once it is announced. “During the tenure of the immediate past President, the figure that was proposed to him was N27,000 by the tripartite committee but he increased it to N30,000. We are hopeful that this President will do the right thing. The President had noted that the difference between N62,000 and N250,000 is a wide gulf.”
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) has described as false, report in some sections of the media alleging that it inflated subsidy claims by N3.3trillion. A statement today, June 10, by the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC Ltd, Olufemi O. Soneye said that the company has been conducting its businesses accountably and transparently in keeping with international best practices. The statement said that the company has, at no time, inflated its subsidy claims with the Federal Government. “All previous subsidy claims by the Company are verifiable as relevant records and documents have been sent to relevant authorities and agencies. “NNPC Ltd is neither aware of any audit of its subsidy claims nor probe ensuing therefrom and wishes to state categorically that both ridiculous claims are products of the febrile imagination of the reporters and their respective media houses. “It is on record that in line with its Transparency, Accountability & Performance Excellence (TAPE) mantra, NNPC Ltd. has, on several occasions, independently invited external auditors to review its books.” NNPC Ltd made it clear that it would resist any attempt to drag it into the politics of fuel subsidy, saying that it is currently operating on commercial basis, and on the express provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). The company advised media practitioners and media houses to exercise restraint and verify information before publication in keeping with the ethics of the profession of journalism to avoid misleading the public.
Pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, has the potentiality of crashing to about N300 per litre with the onset of large-scale production by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and other local producers. According to the Crude Oil Refinery Owners Association of Nigeria (CORAN), a registered body of modular and conventional refinery companies, in a statement, it is easy to achieve the price drop if the federal government provides adequate crude oil to local refiners. They said that foreign refineries are currently profiting at Nigeria’s expense. CORAN’s Publicity Secretary, Eche Idoko, said that Dangote refinery, when it begins full production, would have positive impact on the prices. He said that if local refineries received sufficient crude oil, Nigerians could see petrol prices drop to N300 per litre, compared to the current nearly N700 per litre. Idoko criticized the current system that benefits international refiners and called for crude oil to be sold to local refineries at the naira equivalent of the dollar rate. This, he argued, would help strengthen the naira and reduce costs for consumers. Currently, Nigeria has 25 licensed modular refineries, with five in operation and producing various products, including diesel and kerosene. However, many plants are facing significant challenges, particularly in securing crude oil, which hampers their ability to obtain necessary financing. In May 2024, Aliko Dangote announced that his refinery’s production plan would eliminate Nigeria’s need to import petrol by June. The refinery, which has already impacted diesel prices, aims to meet the fuel needs of West Africa and beyond. Oil marketers, like the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), have expressed optimism about lower petrol prices with local production. However, they noted that specific pricing details from the Dangote refinery are still pending. IPMAN President, Abubakar Maigandi said that marketers are hoping for prices at about N500 per litre, lower than the current NNPC rate of N565.50 per litre. Regulatory bodies have also indicated support for ensuring a consistent supply of crude oil to domestic refiners, which is expected to further stabilize and reduce petroleum product prices in the country.
Against the backdrop of the federal government’s proposed N62,000 as new minimum wage for Nigeria’s workers, organized labour has sounded a warning that it will not accept anything less than N250,000. Spokesperson for the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Benson Upah, in a statement, labelled the government proposed N62,000 as a demonstration of non-seriousness in addressing workers’ grievances. Benson Upah said that the proposed ₦62,000 is insufficient to maintain a decent standard of living amidst the escalating cost of living in the country. He stressed that the Union would not accept the government position, saying: “No, not all….it is far too low below the threshold. No deal. Government is not serious yet.” This was even as the Trade Union Congress (TUC), insisted the proposed N250,000 minimum wage. It cited necessity of the N250,000 to meet the challenges of the present socio-economic climate. The TUC’s first deputy president, Tommy Okon, said that the proposed amount is justifiable considering various socio-economic factors, such as housing, transportation, healthcare, education, and tariffs, as outlined in the cost of living index. He advised President Tinubu to consider their proposal in line with the current realities. “You are aware that our position is very clear on the minimum of N250,000. If we had done otherwise, you would have seen. So, we have taken our position to Mr. President, through the committee. “So, let Mr. President decide. That is our position. We stand by ₦250,000 national minimum wage. “Like I said, it is now at Mr. President’s prerogative, because what we have done is to help the government and also to help the President work this stuff. Remember, when Mr. President said fuel subsidy was gone, he said he was going to pay workers a living wage. So, we have been able to put out a variable facts that can technically prove that ₦250,000 could be manageable as a living wage. This is because when you look at the value of ₦62,000, and the present socioeconomic challenges, it cannot amount to what Mr. President referred to in his inaugural speech as a living wage. “So, we are helping the government to work, because what the government has offered so far cannot be justifiable going by the present cost of living. The reason is that there is no variable fact to speak on it. Is it for housing? Is it for transportation? Is it for medical? Is it for education? Is it for tariff? These are indices that we have come to look at through the cost of living index that ₦250,000 is justifiable. “So, that is what we are doing. And we believe that Mr. President is very sensitive, and that he would look at it as a democrat and see that, yes, what the workers have put forward is also considerable in line with the present reality. So, that is our position and we believe that Mr. President, who came on to announce the removal of fuel subsidy without consulting us, will also find a way to see that he appeases us, because when that was done, we never went on strike. So, in this case, Mr. President will also consider that they need to give us a wage of ₦250,000.” The federal government Tripartite Committee had submitted its report to President Bola Tinubu last Friday. The Committee, made up of representatives of the federal and state governments as well as the private sector, recommended a minimum wage of ₦62,000.
An Abuja court has sentenced a staff of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Quadri Ismail Adeyinka, to seven years imprisonment for defrauding a Nigerian over international passport. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), had arraigned the convict before Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Apo, Abuja on a four-counts charge bordering on gratification, conferment of corrupt advantage and cheating contrary to extant provisions of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and the Penal Code Act. Counsel to the ICPC, Dr. Osuobeni Ekoi Akponimisingha had, in the course of the trial, led evidence before the court on how Adeyinka defrauded one Ovie Justice Ojeffia under the pretence of regularizing his international passport. Adeyinka was said to have received the sum of N100,000.00 from Ojeffia to regularise the said passport but reneged. The victim thereafter petitioned against the offer to the ICPC, which took the matter up. After the investigation, the Commission arraignment the convict before the court. In his judgement, Justice Onwuegbuzie found Adeyinka guilty on all four counts charge and sentenced him to seven years each for counts one and two, five years for count four and two years for count three. The sentences are to run concurrently.
Saudi Arabian authorities have confirmed the death, through suicide, of a female pilgrim from Kwara State, Nigeria. In a statement today, June 9, by the Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Muslim Pilgrims Board, Abdulsalam AbdulKabir, said that the pilgrim, Hajiya Hawawu died as a result of what the Saudi authorities found to be “an unfortunate suicidal episode from the rooftop of her apartment in Madina. “Hajiya Hawawu Mohammed (who arrived with Batch 9) died following what Saudi authorities have investigated and found to be an unfortunate suicidal episode from the rooftop of her apartment in Madina.” The statement did not give details of the reason for the suicide, but said that another pilgrim from the same Kwara, Saliu Mohammed, died in Madina, in an intensive care unit of a public hospital in Madina after a brief illness. “Kwara State Muslim Pilgrims Board sends heartfelt commiserations to the families of two of our pilgrims who returned to their Lord in Madina, Saudi Arabia. “Saliu Mohammed, who arrived with Batch 3 of the state contingent, died in an intensive care unit of a public hospital in Madina after suddenly falling ill “The pilgrims’ board deeply regrets these sad events but submits totally to the decree and ultimate knowledge of Allaah in all affairs. “The board sends profound condolences to their families and asks Allaah to grant them comfort and forgive the deceased.” The death of the two Kwara pilgrims added to the number of Nigerian pilgrims who had died in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ahead of this year’s Hajj, which is scheduled to commence on Friday, June 14. A female pilgrim from Kebbi State, Hajiya Tawalkatu Busare Alako, popularly known as Maman Biyu, was the first to die on May 25 in Makkah a few days after arriving at the holy city from Madina, and barely 24 hours after her death, Alhaji Muhammad Suleman also died in Makkah. A Lagos State pilgrim, 68-year-old Oloshogbo Isiaka Idris, died on May 28 also in Makkah after returning from the Grand Mosque, where he went to perform tawaf (circumambulation) as part of Umrah (lesser Hajj). Meanwhile, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), has completed the airlift of all the 50,661 Muslims, including officials to the Holy land for the performance of pilgrimage this year. The last flight by Flynas airline departed Minna to Madinah today, June 9, by about 3:53pm, conveying 428 Niger State Pilgrims and two Officials. The pilgrims were airlifted in a total of 120 flights.
For the past four years, I have been insisting that our problem and even need now is not about salary increment but about being a productive nation that produces what it needs and uses what it produces. This would galvanise our economy and strengthen the naira. With a strong currency, ₦30,000 is more than enough as a basic salary. Just imagine the naira to be equal to the dollar and there was a time when ₦60 was equal to $100. Here I have reproduced an old writeup on this topic. There is no Nigerian that will tell you he is not aware of the NLC even if he does not know that it is an acronym for the Nigeria Labour Congress. What the average Nigerian knows about them is that they always go on strike at the drop of a hat, strikes that have lost their meaning because they always achieve almost nothing. Well, there’s nothing in it for the average Nigerian; only for the vanguards of the congress. At least, that is what an average citizen will tell you. This suspicion, or rather an assumption, is fueled by the fact that days into a strike, the comrades would be shown on national television laughing and exchanging banters with government officials, and the next you hear is that the strike is suspended while the reasons for the strike in the first place remain unresolved. Citizens suspect the laughs from the chubby-cheeked people on the telly mean each side is happy with what transpired at the closed-door meeting despite the cause of the strike remaining unsolved. A good example is that of fuel increase or subsidy withdrawal. The labour leaders would shout, give ultimatums and then mobilise workers for a strike. And these strikes affect everyone, not only workers because the public and private sectors are intricately connected. Yet the issue (subsidy) lingers: the palliatives promised, even though mainly targeted to help government workers, are too little or are still being awaited. We were witnesses to a long strike, getting to almost a year, by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), yet the NLC was nowhere to be found. But what is getting alarming now is that the labour union, like our governments and their institutions, is becoming a tool for personal causes. There is no reason for the union to call a national strike because its president was assaulted. If he was attacked because he was fighting for fairness and justice, then that should be seen as a sacrifice for his role. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Aminu Kano, Gambo Sawaba and many other great freedom and human rights fighters never privatised or personalised their struggles or made people fight the system because they were assaulted. In any case, how many Nigerians have been attacked, humiliated and dehumanised without the labour union fighting for them? How many have been killed, some by non-state actors and some by security agents? And some victims were public servants. If labour says it is there for the workers, where was it? And despite this, they are full of cowardice. For instance, the labour union president was manhandled in Owerri, but they came to Abuja Airport to block access roads and, after that, they embarked on a nationwide strike. We have had many labour leaders, right from Michael Imoudu, popularly known as Pa Imoudu, the father of labour unionism in Nigeria, but none of them personalised the labour struggle till now. Wahab Goodluck, the first president of the NLC, who served between 1978 and 1984, led the struggle for better wages and working conditions. He fought against the government’s attempt to deregulate the economy and privatise state-owned enterprises. He organised the NLC and made it a force to be reckoned with, but he never personalised the struggle. Paschal Bafyau, who took over from Goodluck, made the NLC more politically conscious and active, but he never personalised the union. He successfully negotiated a minimum wage and led the union in the fight to usher in civilian rule in 1999. One of the greatest presidents the NLC ever had was Ali Ciroma, who served from 1988 to 1994. He fought against General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s move to introduce the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). The union gained strength and influence under his leadership, but one thing he did not do was personalise its activities. Adams Oshiomhole, who served as its president from 1999 to 2007, gave the labour union more visibility, influence and effectiveness but he never personalised its fight. One may contend that the quality of the labour union and its search for solutions for the Nigerian worker and, ultimately, the country started nose-diving after Oshiomhole. Many people expected the union to be at the vanguard of solving the country’s problems instead of being self-serving and bringing archaic ways to help the workers and the country. A good example is the one to do with minimum wage. For how long will labour unions continue mouthing ‘salary increments’ in the face of dwindling national income and the plummeting value of our currency? Perhaps out of intellectual paucity, they have failed to propose a more intellectually viable option, to both workers and the government, about how to stabilise the naira and make us a nation that produces what it consumes and vice versa. Every patriot knows that buying things from abroad causes capital flight. A patriotic labour union should be the last to sanction a situation where our government spends hundreds of billions of naira annually to buy cars from foreign manufacturers, thereby keeping afloat other countries’ economies to the detriment of ours. But Nigerian labour leaders feel comfortable being chauffeur-driven in foreign cars, keeping foreign businesses thriving and foreigners employed while Nigerian youths are jobless and languishing in abject poverty because the country’s industries are dead. How patriotic! This is why they cannot offer a better alternative other than asking for a salary increment. They do not have the intellectual capacity to know that it is not the quantity but the quality of the currency that matters. Take, for instance, the case of China and Germany, where the minimum wages are $358 (about ₦405,000 as of last week) and 1557 euro (₦1,845,000) respectively, now cast your mind back to when the naira was at par with the dollar and assume our minimum wage of ₦30,000 is $30,000, don’t you think that is more than enough? Yet still, workers in some of these countries enjoy free housing, healthcare, education, affordable public transport and a constant supply of electricity. This is why salaries have value there. Our labour union, which should be fighting for better working conditions and stronger currency, is instead fighting for more money, thereby courting inflation and encouraging capital flight through patronising foreign goods and services. With our bumbling, self-serving and intellectually lazy labour union, it is high time we started scrutinising their motives and their base desires. Hassan Gimba is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Neptune Prime.
The organized labour unions in Nigeria seem to be as confused as the government they are struggling with to get a national minimum wage for the workers. For the past few weeks, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the two unions representing workers, have been on the neck of the federal government on this issue of minimum wage. The struggle led to one-day nationwide strike on Monday, June 3, throwing the whole country into total darkness and grounding socio-economic activities. One cannot but sympathize with the unions whose leadership has been made to think in a straightjacketed manner: that the only way for workers to acknowledge that they are working for them to enjoy themselves is through increase in minimum wage. This one-way thinking has for long, become a tradition in unionism in the country, but the lesson that has never been learnt is the outcome which increase in minimum wage always, repeat, always generate. There is no doubt that the unions are concerned about the nasty situation and conditions under which Nigerian workers operate, earning what can best be described as slave wages, but the issue is that wage increase or minimum wage had, time immemorial, been one of the two sources that always, repeat, always give rise to astronomical rise in prices of food items and other essential things in the markets. Another source is increase in the prices of fuel and other petroleum products. It is on record that from the very moment President Bola Tinubu announced the cancellation of fuel subsidy when he mounted the leadership last year, May 29, 2023, and the consequence increase in the prices of petroleum products, prices of food items and other essential things virtually shot through the roof. As a matter of fact, so sordid has been the situation that no one goes to the market today without returning home hissing with anger and in frustration. While on that, the organized unions, innocently as one would want to believe, are courting the second source that usually gives rise to price increase in the markets: minimum wage. The unions make the whole thing looks as if the minimum wage and salary increase is an end on itself, and is all that is needed to make workers enjoy their take home pay. In fact, this thinking is at total variance with the realities that have made themselves clear, from the point of history. What economic sense does it make for example, for an average worker to earn, say, N500,000 and it is not enough to keep him for a week? Take for example, before the first phase of the anti-stable food prices, which is fuel price increase, was brought about in May 2023, with the announcement of the subsidy withdrawal, a measure of garri (dried cassava flour – a common staple food used mainly by indigent students) was merely N120, but as at today, the same measure is N1,400 in many markets across the country. Similarly, a measure of beans which was N250 before the coming of fuel price rise is now N2,500. So much have the prices of essential things used by the common people skyrocketed that many people are simply dying slowly with hunger and in want. In other words, it doesn’t really matter how much an average worker earn so long such earning would guarantee some amount of comfort through cheaper and more affordable essential things of life. The organized labour unions would do well, in their struggle for better deals for the workers, to include in their negotiations with the government for good living for the workers and Nigerians as a whole, the urgent need to enforce price control, amongst many others welfarist measures. Yes, Nigeria is operating a free market economy as a police, but it is obvious that it is being blatantly abused by the market forces themselves. There is no country in the world (I stand to be corrected), where certain policies of government are static, even if they are turning into anti-people’s happiness and well-being. Policies are supposed to be flexible and changeable within the context of forces around them. The unions need to return to the drawing board to come up with tangible ideas, far away from the time-warn wage increase, to assist the government to genuinely make life bearable, not only for the workers who constitute less than one percent of the nation’s population, but the over 250 million country people. After all, if the minimum wage is jarked up to N500,000 today, the unions would of course, beat chest for astounding accomplishment, but it is only this less than one percent part of Nigerians that would enjoy it, whereas the devastating consequences of such increase would be experienced by all Nigerians. Those are the ones in far-flung villages who don’t even know what is happening, where it is happening and who are making it happen.
Nigeria’s Federal Government has finally offered to pay workers a new minimum wage of N62,000, against the background of the governors of 36 States of the country rejecting even the earlier suggested N60,000. The Federal Government’s new offer of N62,000 is a far cry from the demand of the organised labour unions for N250,000. This development came after series of meetings yesterday, June 7, even against the backdrop of the rejection of the N60,000 as minimum by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. The Governors, rising from a meeting yesterday, insisted that N60,000 as minimum wage is not sustainable. “The NGF cautions parties in this important discussion to look beyond just signing a document for the sake of it; any agreement to be signed should be sustainable and realistic. “All things considered, the NGF holds that the N60,000 minimum wage proposal is not sustainable and cannot fly. “It will simply mean that many states will spend all their Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations on just paying salaries, with nothing left for development purposes. “In fact, a few states will end up borrowing to pay workers every month. We do not think this will be in the collective interest of the country, including workers,’’ NGF’s Acting Director on Media and Public Affairs, Hajiya Halima Ahmed, said in a statement
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Indolent Labour Union, Matters Arising, By Hassan Gimba
For the past four years, I have been insisting that our problem and even need now is not about salary increment but about being a productive nation that produces what it needs and uses what it produces. This would galvanise our economy and strengthen the naira. With a strong currency, ₦30,000 is more than enough as a basic salary. Just imagine the naira to be equal to the dollar and there was a time when ₦60 was equal to $100. Here I have reproduced an old writeup on this topic.
There is no Nigerian that will tell you he is not aware of the NLC even if he does not know that it is an acronym for the Nigeria Labour Congress. What the average Nigerian knows about them is that they always go on strike at the drop of a hat, strikes that have lost their meaning because they always achieve almost nothing.
Well, there’s nothing in it for the average Nigerian; only for the vanguards of the congress. At least, that is what an average citizen will tell you. This suspicion, or rather an assumption, is fueled by the fact that days into a strike, the comrades would be shown on national television laughing and exchanging banters with government officials, and the next you hear is that the strike is suspended while the reasons for the strike in the first place remain unresolved.
Citizens suspect the laughs from the chubby-cheeked people on the telly mean each side is happy with what transpired at the closed-door meeting despite the cause of the strike remaining unsolved.
A good example is that of fuel increase or subsidy withdrawal. The labour leaders would shout, give ultimatums and then mobilise workers for a strike. And these strikes affect everyone, not only workers because the public and private sectors are intricately connected. Yet the issue (subsidy) lingers: the palliatives promised, even though mainly targeted to help government workers, are too little or are still being awaited.
We were witnesses to a long strike, getting to almost a year, by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), yet the NLC was nowhere to be found.
But what is getting alarming now is that the labour union, like our governments and their institutions, is becoming a tool for personal causes. There is no reason for the union to call a national strike because its president was assaulted. If he was attacked because he was fighting for fairness and justice, then that should be seen as a sacrifice for his role.
Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Aminu Kano, Gambo Sawaba and many other great freedom and human rights fighters never privatised or personalised their struggles or made people fight the system because they were assaulted.
In any case, how many Nigerians have been attacked, humiliated and dehumanised without the labour union fighting for them? How many have been killed, some by non-state actors and some by security agents? And some victims were public servants. If labour says it is there for the workers, where was it?
And despite this, they are full of cowardice. For instance, the labour union president was manhandled in Owerri, but they came to Abuja Airport to block access roads and, after that, they embarked on a nationwide strike.
We have had many labour leaders, right from Michael Imoudu, popularly known as Pa Imoudu, the father of labour unionism in Nigeria, but none of them personalised the labour struggle till now.
Wahab Goodluck, the first president of the NLC, who served between 1978 and 1984, led the struggle for better wages and working conditions. He fought against the government’s attempt to deregulate the economy and privatise state-owned enterprises. He organised the NLC and made it a force to be reckoned with, but he never personalised the struggle.
Paschal Bafyau, who took over from Goodluck, made the NLC more politically conscious and active, but he never personalised the union. He successfully negotiated a minimum wage and led the union in the fight to usher in civilian rule in 1999.
One of the greatest presidents the NLC ever had was Ali Ciroma, who served from 1988 to 1994. He fought against General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s move to introduce the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). The union gained strength and influence under his leadership, but one thing he did not do was personalise its activities.
Adams Oshiomhole, who served as its president from 1999 to 2007, gave the labour union more visibility, influence and effectiveness but he never personalised its fight.
One may contend that the quality of the labour union and its search for solutions for the Nigerian worker and, ultimately, the country started nose-diving after Oshiomhole. Many people expected the union to be at the vanguard of solving the country’s problems instead of being self-serving and bringing archaic ways to help the workers and the country.
A good example is the one to do with minimum wage. For how long will labour unions continue mouthing ‘salary increments’ in the face of dwindling national income and the plummeting value of our currency?
Perhaps out of intellectual paucity, they have failed to propose a more intellectually viable option, to both workers and the government, about how to stabilise the naira and make us a nation that produces what it consumes and vice versa.
Every patriot knows that buying things from abroad causes capital flight. A patriotic labour union should be the last to sanction a situation where our government spends hundreds of billions of naira annually to buy cars from foreign manufacturers, thereby keeping afloat other countries’ economies to the detriment of ours.
But Nigerian labour leaders feel comfortable being chauffeur-driven in foreign cars, keeping foreign businesses thriving and foreigners employed while Nigerian youths are jobless and languishing in abject poverty because the country’s industries are dead. How patriotic! This is why they cannot offer a better alternative other than asking for a salary increment. They do not have the intellectual capacity to know that it is not the quantity but the quality of the currency that matters.
Take, for instance, the case of China and Germany, where the minimum wages are $358 (about ₦405,000 as of last week) and 1557 euro (₦1,845,000) respectively, now cast your mind back to when the naira was at par with the dollar and assume our minimum wage of ₦30,000 is $30,000, don’t you think that is more than enough?
Yet still, workers in some of these countries enjoy free housing, healthcare, education, affordable public transport and a constant supply of electricity. This is why salaries have value there.
Our labour union, which should be fighting for better working conditions and stronger currency, is instead fighting for more money, thereby courting inflation and encouraging capital flight through patronising foreign goods and services.
With our bumbling, self-serving and intellectually lazy labour union, it is high time we started scrutinising their motives and their base desires.
Hassan Gimba is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Neptune Prime.