The other ‘strikes’
The sit-at-home directive by NLC in a legitimate protest against another PPRA’s dictatorship of prices (read; deregulation) takes effect today. A day after this protest, pundits will do the stock-taking, counting the losses in human hours and even Naira and kobo. Let it be reported that today’s stoppage is not different from scores of other daily officially promoted stoppages, albeit unreported as such but the effects even more dysfunctional!
Management and productivity experts noted with undoubted authority that the weekend Presidential directive of a 4-hour ‘stay-at-home’ (8a.m. to 1pm) amounted to a national strike in scale, dimension and impact. According to them this singular Presidential work stoppage (without ultimatum to allow Nigerians adjust their operation!) takes us far away from economic recovery than organized labour’s protest preceded by ultimatum as long as two weeks! In fact observers noted that given the fact that the weekend stoppage was not preceded by any notice in form of ultimatum characteristic of all civilized strike actions by labour, it was more of a sabotage given the unplanned disruptions it caused for Nigerians!
The argument is that while other stoppages are provoked, the Presidential type witnessed last weekend was unnecessary where there is good governance and planning. Why should anybody make child immunisation which should be routine affairs of parentage and local government a big bang unhelpful national shut down for 4 hours? At a time we claim to be deregulating and decentralizing, is this not another display of Federal totalitarianism and centralization? Must we ‘eradicate’ polio and in turn fuel poverty, collapse income, undermine industrial growth through value subtraction caused by mediocre impulsive sit-at- home?
The Mayor of New York, analysts insist, could not have imagined grounding the city of New York on account of ‘vaccinators meeting children at home’ no less than the President of United States of America could have authorised a 4 hour shut-down of the entire American economy to fight hurricane which is causing havoc in southern states of America. We are reminded that not even at the height of terror attack of September 11 was for once America shut down, adding that only a non-performing economy that lives on cheap mismanaged crude oil like Nigeria’s could avoid the scandalous luxury of sit at home to immunise! When we add Presidential ‘stoppages’ on ‘democracy day’, (even as we trample under the feet of democratic rights of citizens every second!) ‘June 12’ ‘public holiday’, experts predict that we can hardly cross the threshold of poverty precisely because we are officially not a working nation as such!
Analysts further task us to determine which strike is more altruistic; the President’s aimed at making sure that ‘vaccinators meet children at home’ or the NLC’s sit-at-home making sure that parents have enough to feed the children strong enough to be vaccinated.
But beyond the weekend visibly declared workstoppage, our attention is also drawn to other hidden strikes and idle capacity occasioned by neo liberal policies of the government since SAP days.
These policies include devaluation without strategic objective of export promotion, public sector retrenchment without corresponding retooling of the disengaged, power outages which undermine productive activities, prohibitive inflation rate promoted by almost 184 % increases in prices of petroleum products since the inception of this administration. Thus while official government spokesmen would be advertising hypocrisy today talking about man hours loss due to NLC legitimate protest, let’s insist that endless work stopages caused by ill-informed government policies are far more the problem. Investment strike due to factories’ closures because industries are not competitive, children withdrawn from schools (children’s strike!) because parents’ pensions and salaries are not paid or parents have lost jobs altogether( no thanks to down-sizing), hunger strike on account of poverty, are far more the culprits. Indeed the NLC’s protest of today is in itself provoked by scores of other ‘policy strikes’ by the government against the people!
The bane of government strikes is that nobody knows when it will stop while the strength of NLC protest is that it is definitive and time bound and demands targeted; reverse the fuel price increases!
It was Abraham Lincoln, the American founding President who once noted that; ‘Thank God we have a system of labor where there can be a strike. Whatever the pressure, there is a point where the working man may stop.’ When for God’s sake will the government stop its own strikes against the citizens?
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