All things being equal, the Federal Government would go into another meeting with the organized labour today, in an attempt to abort the planned nationwide strike and mass protest, over the recent increase in electricity tariff and petrol pump price. The protest is scheduled to commence from the coming Monday.
The borne of contention between the Government and the organized labour is not only the hikes, but the timing of the hikes, particularly because they came immediately after emerging from the pandemic.
In the words of the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, the Federal Government should, in the interest of industrial peace and social order, listen to the cries of workers and other suffering Nigerians and rescind the increases, saying that failure to meet the demands would only make the planned strike and mass protest inevitable.
Wabba said, “The National Executive Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress comprising members of the National Administrative Council, President and General Secretary of members of the affiliate unions and our state council chairpersons and secretaries of the 36 states and FCT met, and resolved as follows: NEC resolved to reject in its entirety the issue of hike in electricity tariffs by almost 100 per cent as well as the fuel price increase in the name of full deregulation”.
Germaine as some of the reasons advanced by the NLC may be, especially when hinged on the sentiment of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are moral issues that may clash with legal issues. The hyped “interest of industrial peace and social order”, may come in conflict with the established principles that differentiate what is right from what is wrong, or the general code of conduct, which deals with good and bad behaviour.
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At the risk of bearing the anger or wrath of the organized labour, I make bold to say that, sometimes, unionists tend to go beyond the protection and furthering the rights of workers, by venturing into acts that may have bearings with opposition politics.
I see the NLC playing politics when it said that, the privatization of the electricity sub-sector seven years down the line has not yielded any positive result. This is not true. Even the most critic of the Buhari administration cannot deny the fact that electricity supply has improved exponentially in the last two years, and the trajectory is going upwards.
NLC shot itself on the foot when it said, “Whereas, in the entire privatization process, the entire sector was sold at about N400 billion, we are also surprised that government within the last four years injected N1.5 trillion over and above the amount that accrued from this important asset”.
The question to ask is, who privatized the sector? Is it the Buhari regime, or the ones before it? Should the Buhari regime be held to ransome for simply coming to the aid, by providing funds to salvage a squandered sector?
I disagree with labor in its conclusion that the entire privatization process has failed, and that the electricity hike is actually a process of continuous exploitation of Nigerians. Their reasoning is not in conformity with global economics, and the principles of efficient management.
To say on the issue of the refineries and increase in the pump price of PMS, the matter had been on the table for more than three decades without any change, is also akin to playing politics upside down, or playing the politics of the opposition. It is not only untrue but completely illogical. Before the coming of Buhari, Nigeria was not only powerless on power, but purchasing petrol at filling stations was synonymous with warfare.
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Privatisation involves selling state-owned assets to the private sector, where it is believed, the business would be managed more efficiently because of the profit motive. In the 1980s and 1990s, the UK privatised many previously state-owned industries such as BP, BT, British Airways, Electricity companies, Gas companies and the Rail networks, which are today operating at profits and serving the public better.
Except for those who want to argue only for senseless public applause, in a country like Nigeria, where corruption is endemic, and where some people see abuse of positions of public trust as a patriotic duty, privatization is the best way to go in killing kleptomania.
Another area of immorality in the morale of the planned strike is the intention of commercial sex workers to join. According to a circular from Self-Made Women of Substance in Onitsha, Anambra State, all commercial sex workers have vowed to embark on indefinite strike over recent hike in the pump price of petrol and increase in electricity tariff.
Uto Nwanyi, who claimed to be their patron, said the women are supportive of the NLC position, and lamenting the hardship occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic, which had compelled many of them to go out of business during lockdown.
Uto Nwanyi added, “We were yet to recover from the Coronavirus, when the Federal Government came up with their pump price increment. Electricity companies also came up with tariff hike. This led to increase in house rent, transportation and general cost of living. The situation bites us more than it affects any other group in Nigeria. Therefore, we are of the opinion that the situation be reversed within seven days. If that is not done, we shall mobilise our members for indefinite strike from October 1. If our strike fails to achieve its purpose, we shall go back to work, and increase service charge to as much as 200 per cent. After COVID-19, we reduced our service charge to N1,500 for short-time and N5,000 for day break, but with this development, we shall also review our service charges.”
It is therefore imperative for the NLC to look beyond the legality of their agitations, by capturing the immorality behind the morale of the planned strike
Bala Ibrahim, a Media Advisor writes from Abuja
