IT is difficult most times to depart from the trodden path of life but sometimes it pays to do so. It is the road less travelled that usually opens path to opportunities and progress. Having followed the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, activism, I decided to take up the burden of helping these organisations seemingly devoted to the realisation of the welfare of salaried worker/wage-earners in Nigeria's distorted political economy.
Every labourer is entitled to his wage. But the overarching vexed issue in Nigeria has been the question of what exactly is the value of the Nigerian labourer (worker)? How much does the worker's labour worth? In colonial period, the Nigeria labourer worked for a conqueror that was not answerable to him and he was forced to accept whatever salary or wage he was offered by the 'master'. Our grandfathers and fathers, especially those of the defunct Eastern Region, never tire in regaling us with stories of "Oru Obodo" and "Oru Mbadiwe" which were signification of the colonial forced labours of which all able-bodied Easterners were herded into labour camps at Port Harcourt, Aba, Enugu up to the North to build the PortHarcourt harbor and eastern rail line to Maiduguri. Needless to say that these workers were paid slave wages. The workers at the special economic labour camps at Enugu collieries were even worse treated which culminated in the Coal Miners Strike in 1945.
The bad condition of the Nigerian workers was robustly argued and condemned by Nigerian nationalists led by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo. For being on the side of Nigerian workers of which he allowed his West African Pilot newspapers to highlight, the Nigerian workers led by Michael Imoudu allied with Azikiwe's political party, the National Council of Nigerian Citizens. Due to colonial manipulations, neither Azikiwe nor Awolowo took over the mantle of leadership of Nigeria; so it was not possible for either of them to change the colonial template of Nigerian workers' slave remuneration and general condition of service. So, since 1960 to date, the wage or salary of Nigerian worker has been an unfinished or never-ending controversy. This controversy is not just a story but rather a saga of slavery.
It was probably as a result of this unbroken story of Nigerian worker's salaried or wage troubles that General Yakubu Gowon decided, according to him, to reward workers with increased salary award for "their support and dedication during the Biafra War". That Udoji salary award dislocated Nigerian political economy and it dovetailed to the 1975 troubles which General Murtala Mohammed seized upon to grab power to roll Nigeria back to the Lord Lugard's legal order template of feudalism and autocracy encapsulated in the Indirect Rule baptized as Uniform Local Government Reforms, the Land Use Decree and strengthening of the Unitary System. Ever since, the Nigerian worker has been bothered by his condition of service, but above all by the deleterious effect the Nigerian troubles have had on his general welfare. For this reason, the Nigerian worker has become a constant agitator for wage increase. The strikes have had very damaging effect on the political economy of Nigeria as social services during such strikes were dislocated and distorted. It is for the above reason that I decided to pen down this manifesto with the hope that the NLC and TUC may have a rethink of their present strategy of continually agitating for salary/wage increase which never materialises to improve the welfare of the worker.
The new stance I want the NLC/TUC to take is to adopt as a manifesto, instead of perennial agitations for increase of workers' salary/wage, a committed struggle for the abolition of apartheid remuneration existing between the civil service/private sector and the political office holders (local, state and federal governments) in Nigeria. It is public knowledge that Nigeria operates an apartheid income distribution and reward system that extravagantly enriched political office-holders, being a legacy of colonialism that Britain instituted to attract British workers to work in colonies. At Independence the heirs to British colonial government sustained this dual culture which assured political office-holders (Governor, Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, District Officers, etc) of extravagantly enhanced salary scale compared to the slave-salary granted to African civil servants.
In addition, these political office-holders were housed in specially designated and built government reserved areas, GRAs, with properly planned and provisioned buildings and condominiums. Those colonially designated special dwellings of the rulers in towns and cities dot Nigerian political landscape as GRAs. These colonial legacies were some of the policy outlines which the Nigerian workers through the NLC/TUC would have devoted great energy to fight against instead of fighting for the perennial salary increment that fizzles with Nigeria's constant inclement economic weather.
So, in addition to its current struggle to obtain salary increment starting at N615,000, though economically reasonable the impossibility of which the Federal Government has casually dismissed with its measly offer of N48,000 as minimum wage. Instead of insisting on its suggested minimum, NLC/TUC should anchor its position on the irreducible minimum of designing and implementing a Unified National Minimum Wage for both civil workers and political office holders so that wherever any worker falls (civil or political) he will be rest assured that he is being treated equally and expected to give his productive best to Nigeria. It is quite abhorrent that a political office-holder (local government councilor, Chairman, commissioner, governor, permanent secretary, head of state, etc) should be specially remunerated above other workers in Nigeria's political economy contrary to the practice in Britain and America whose systems Nigeria copies.
In Britain and USA, the salaries of their political office-holders are fixed not to enrich but to remunerate them accordance to the existing general income distribution and remuneration system applicable to the public service. In USA, the president earns $400,000 per annum and he is not, apart from free accommodation, entitled to anything more or entitled to do with government money as he pleased as is the case in Nigeria where political office-holders are literally granted licence to live off the state as lords and even worse granted a free purse called security vote to play with. These are the things NLC/TUC should agitate against as all these malpractices distort the political economy and expose the workers to a distorted, turbulent economic system and social turmoil that breed violent crimes, impoverishment and disease.
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Let the NLC/TUC stop seeking after illusory minimum wage that will never solve the problem of a just income distribution and remuneration in the political economy. Let the agitation be concentrated on achieving the abolition of the present apartheid national income distribution and remuneration system that rewards the political office-holder far above his contemporary in the civil service, private and public service sectors. Politics should not be elevated from its essential vocational essence to an occupation or even a profession.
Politics is, at best a part time work and should be remunerated accordingly. If this is achieved, then politics ceases to be gambling for all manner of layabouts and less than honourable men. And if the Nigerian economy is made to afford Nigerians equal opportunity whereby people find meaningful options in the public service, industry and agriculture few people will be willing to embrace the present "do-or-die" politics.
The present NLC/TUC culture of agitation does not present a notion of just struggle Nigerian people can readily relate to. If Nigerian politics is sanitized, the political economy will leave the federal purse with humongous amount to fund efficient and affordable education, health, transport, security system and a just and equitable income distribution and remuneration system. Let NLC/TUC change tactics/strategy and take on social reforms struggles instead of perennial agitation for salary increment.
·Onu, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Lagos
