Why strikes remain the only option, by Labour leaders
By Kodilinye Obiagwu and Clifford Ndujihe
THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is conducting pre-strike rallies in what looks like a gambit to demonstrate to the government that it means business. Having declared the four days strike of last month a failure, the government is pointedly ignoring Labour.
But last week, labour had a rally in Lagos in the first of its nation-wide campaign to sensitise and mobilise Nigerians for its proposed resumption of an indefinite strike over increases in the prices of petroleum products. The strike will commence next Tuesday.
Labour leaders told The Guardian at the weekend that the government has left them without an alternative on the issue.
Hopes of averting the indefinite strike slated to begin on November 16 dimmed last week following the NLC withdrawal from the palliative committee on fuel prices.
Asked if labour could not come up with an alternative to deal with the government on the issue, the Assistant Secretary of the NLC, Mr. Denja Yaqub said Labour was not embarking on the action because it likes strike.
"Give us one alternative. People should give us an alternative to a government that has refused to dialogue. The only alternative to strike is dialogue and the government has refused to dialogue," he said over the phone.
For Mr Ibrahim Zikirullahi, the secretary of the United Action for Democracy (UAD), a coalition of 36 civil society groups that is participating in the industrial action, the only language the government understands is strike.
An alternative to strike, he contended would be a resignation of the President Obasanjo-led government, which he claimed had failed to address the problems of the country.
Zikirullahi said the failure of the government to convene a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) for Nigerians to discuss and agree on modalities for running the country was contributing to the crisis at hand.
Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, the NLC president said Labour could not continue its membership of the Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu-led committee because President Obasanjo insisted that price reduction or reversal was a no-go-area for the committee.
Consequently, he said Labour was not willing to be a tool to rubber-stamp what he called the anti-people policies of the present administration.
"The Senator Ibrahim Mantu-led committee under the present scope does not offer us a platform to address contentious issues and holistic review of the problems in the petroleum sector of the nation's economy," he said.
Oshiomhole contended that the government has enough time to reverse the prices to avert the crisis that may engulf the nation as a result of the strike. He called on traditional rulers and religious leaders to prevail on the government to reverse the prices and end the attendant suffering occasioned by continuous increases in the prices of petroleum products.
He asserted that the tactic of government that Nigerians would be worn out if the protest could last for some days would not work this time.
"We must all resolve that as long as they are not tired of inflicting punishment on us, we will not be tired to engage them through the protest. The reason we are taken for granted is that they think Nigerians are short-distance runners and have no capacity for marathon, but we must prove to them that we have the power to sustain the struggle," Oshiomhole said.
Concurring, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti of the Citizens Forum (CF) said that although Nigerians might be losing interest in strikes, the reason to go on strikes was in recognition of the fact that people were suffering.
"It is not enough to say you are getting fed up. Not only will it not be in your interest, it will not be in your children's interest. You must wake up and be aware of what the conditions are and make sure that you take steps to arrest the terrible condition we have found ourselves in the country," he said.
Aside strike, Ransome-Kuti disclosed that the stakeholders were considering other options.
His words: "The option of sitting at home he said started as a form of strike about 1993, when Nigerians massively demonstrated and the late Gen. Sani Abacha sent troops and many people were killed. So people started sitting at home to drive their points home.
"One had thought that with civil rule and what we thought was democratic rule, we could mount our protest effectively to make our views known. But the government has developed a tactic, such that when two or three people are seen on the street, they are dispersed with gun and tear-gas.
"We also know that the Police have ventured into disrupting meetings. The symposium organised by Mrs. Teju Abiola (late MKO Abiola's wife) in Ondo State, in the hall of the state branch of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) was disrupted by the Police and everybody was tear-gassed and sent out."
Faced with the new threat, the pro-democracy activist said the Labour-civil society coalition have to find a way of confronting and surmounting the security hurdle.
"Every avenue will be looked into.
In the coalition, people have their different agendas and some people run faster than others do. So it is not easy to have a consensus. The coalition is a bit more aggressive than Labour. There are people in Labour who even think that we should not protest unless the issue bothers on wages and that Labour should not be getting involved in political or social issues," he said.
Debunking the government position that its reforms would bring some pains at the beginning but in the end yield dividends, he said: "If you are carrying out some reforms, people should start seeing some improvement in some areas. But this government has been there for over five years and there is no area of human endeavour in the country that anybody can point at and say there has been improvement.
"The costs of petroleum products have gone up six times in the last two years - over 100 per cent. All the sectors have remained in bad shape-power supply, water supply, the roads, education and health. The people have been on strike for God-knows-when and they are not paying any attention to that. They said they were going to refurbish all the teaching hospitals in the country, but to date, nothing has been done. Nothing is working and there is no progress in any front. All we can see is growing hunger and unemployment everywhere."
Since 1999 according Ransome-Kuti, the government's response to strikes and protests had been gross contempt. In the past, the labour leaders would have insisted on sitting down with the president to talk.
The looming strike has continued to receive mixed reactions from eminent Nigerians who feel it could be averted.
Options before the government on the issue range from dialogue to arrests and deployment of security officials.
Former presidential candidate of the National Action Council (NAC), Dr. Olapade Agoro, said that another industrial action would be too fatal for the nation.
He asked the government to discuss with the NLC to end the crisis.
Echoing similar views, former Military Governor of Kaduna State, Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (rtd), said past strikes had failed to compel the President Obasanjo government to bend because of the state of the nation's economy.
Umar said if the NLC continues to declare strikes against the government based on its present strategy, such industrial actions would fail. The reason he said was that almost all sectors of the nation's economy have been paralysed and no strike would achieve any desired effect in a comatose economy.
He urged labour to change its strategies to force the government to have a rethink over its economic and reform programmes. He stressed that the only way the Federal Government or Presidency would feel the impact of the strike is "when crude oil is not being pumped and sold because the president is so sensitive to matters affecting oil."
As time ticks away, how the matter would be resolved remains to be seen.`
Give us one alternative. People should give us an alternative to a government that has refused to dialogue. The only alternative to strike is dialogue and the government has refused to dialogue`
We must all resolve that as long as they are not tired of inflicting punishment on us, we will not be tired to engage them through the protest. The reason we are taken for granted is that they think Nigerians are short-distance runners and have no capacity for marathon, but we must prove to them that we have the power to sustain the struggle
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