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Labour, fuel and polity
JOSEPH OMOWA
In
an attempt to cultivate and fraternize with Labour, President
Olusegun Obasanjo at the beginning of his administration promised that the
workers’ salaries would be increased across the board and on every May 1, which
is the Workers’ Day.
But from events today, it seems that his
cordial relationship and rapport with the workers have broken down
irretrievably, and the pillar of the cooperation could no longer hold. In any
democratic dispensation, either parliamentary or presidential, opposition
parties exist to ensure that the political parties in power do not derail by
whipping them into line, but in Nigeria where the twenty-nine opposition
political parties have abdicated such responsibilities and constructive roles,
the Nigeria Labour Congress has slotted itself into such a vacuum and
consequently continues to dominate the centre stage of the polity as the
de-facto opposition party to the PDP-controlled Federal Government. It is
therefore interesting to watch from the side-line how the leaders of the
opposition political parties, particularly ANPP, AD, APGA and the opposition
alliance called and CNPP and the socio-cultural organisations, Human Right
Groups and other NGOs are falling over themselves to encourage, support and urge
Labour on in its ceaseless battles and confrontations with the Federal
Government over the ever-increasing prices of petroleum products, particularly
petrol. These groups have always supported Labour to embark on debilitating
strikes and protests in an effort to paralyse the government as a way of
correcting perceived economic hardships or anomalies.
The article attempts to look at the
reactions of Labour and its sponsors to the Labour bill currently before the
National Assembly which some regard as the Federal Government’s response to
Labour’s assumed transgressions and waywardness; Labour’s in the unending fuel
crisis and its reactions to the ruling of the Federal High Court which has tried
to curtail its awesome and meddlesome roles.
The numberous problems buffeting Nigeria
today should not be isolated from decades of misgovernment, mismanagement of
scarce resources, plan-lessness, corruption and shortsightedness of all past
leaders most of whom today mount high moral grounds to apportion blames in all
attempt to pass the buck. As all participants in indigenous post-independence
governments are vicariously liable, one is therefore surprised that many of our
people still continue to point accusing fingers at some scapegoats. The decay
ravaging the land has permeated all the strata of the Nigerian life - education,
water supply, electricity supply, roads, railway and other means of
transportation and agriculture, employment, and economic development.
One issue that occupies the front burner
today is fuel pricing, as it would be a surprise if matters of fuel pricing and
supply escape the bug of decay that is the hallmark of the nation. The epileptic
performance of the four existing refineries meant to process crude oil to meet
the domestic needs of the Nigerian population has resulted in large-scale
importation of refined petroleum to supplement about 70 per cent of the domestic
shortfall.
The pertinent question remains, is it
possible for Nigeria to sell crude oil at high prices to exporters and import
refined products at cheap prices? The failure of a nation rich in crude oil
resources, in fact ranked as the sixth in the world, to make provisions for its
domestic needs remains an unpardonable national embarrassment. One can therefore
not blame the numerous Nigerians who feel that Nigerians should enjoy the gifits
of nature provided by God through cheaper fuel prices.
Since the four malfunctioning refineries
are incapable of meeting the domestic fuel needs of Nigerians because of
corruption, lack of foresight and imaginative planning of many decades, hence
the upward fluctuation of fuel prices in response to rising prices of crude oil
in the world market, with dire consequences for the social, economic and
political well-being of our people. It will be an understatement that the
numerous economic problems buffeting this country are self-imposed setting off
uncontrollable inflationary trends such as high cost of food, services and all
other human transactions inclusive of petroleum products. But again, can these
economic problems be solved or adjusted through strikes, sit-ins and similar
methodologies which Labour under Oshiomhole and others have targeted and
utilized for the past five years? Can we continue to utilize the medium of
strikes to regulate the economy or to counter the proposed economic reforms?
Should economic reforms not be embarked upon with a view to giving the populace
a better standards of living, providing employment opportunities, improving
their purchasing power, and the provision of efficient infrastructural
facilities and economic stability?
If one considers the national economy in
the last three decades, it is evidently clear that no sustainable economic
development plans were embarked upon to bring about economic improvement. It is
on record that the present administration, in an effort to make a difference,
has embarked on the correction of the mistakes of the past and brought about the
necessary improvement in the standard of living of the people, hence it has
embarked on the ideology of National Economic Employment and Development
Strategy (NEEDS), large scale privatization of the downward sector of the oil
business. The sacred truth needs to be stressed that Economic reforms, as
opposed to the traditional way of carrying on business as usual, cannot be
streamlined by strikes, but by national discourse, dialogue and tolerance.
In the place of a robust national dialogue
by informed stakeholders on the state of the economy, and in an effort to chart
a way forward, Labour seems to have abandoned its traditional duties of
protecting the interest of its members in form of better wages, allowances and a
sustainable improved condition of service generally, to champion the course of
society via street protests and debilitating strikes. The opposition political
parties have abdicated their roles as possible alternative governments in
association with some socio-cultural organizations and Human Right Groups have
deified the NLC who now bestrides the national terrain like a colossus ordering
around all Nigerians, including students, transporters, market women, area boys,
medical workers and others to shut the Nigerian space with strikes as a result
of which more grievous harms would be done to the economy. Such strikes in the
past have been accompanied with incalculable harms to the total economy,
particularly of note are the largescale looting of shops, destruction of
properties, death of innocent Nigerians and the lack of confidence in the
economy as a result of which prospective investors, both indigenous and foreign
are put to flight. It must be recalled that in the colonial days, strikes were
the weapons utilized against the colonial masters to advert attention to the
poor working conditions of the people, but time have changed. Are meaningful
economic reforms attainable through riots in the streets? Can the myriad of
problems confronting this nation be solved without some harships which would
make us pay for the foolhardiness of the past? Street riots, strikes would
definitely continue to complicate and worsen our economic situation.
•To be continued tomorrow.
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