Follow Us on Google
Members of organized labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have sufficiently and eloquently demonstrated that Nigerian workers and indeed Nigerians have the capacity to really fight and stand for a cause when they are determined to do so. They have with the recent spontaneous labour strike over the unwarranted assault and brutalization meted to the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, by government thugs working in cahoots with security agents, shown also that organized labour can bark and bite ferociously.
The workers have equally proved beyond reasonable doubts that Nigerian workers and by extension Nigerians are not docile as being entertained in certain quarters. In spite of being seen as weak or pliant to the dictates of the government of the day, they have shown too that Nigerian workers can unite and prove a point or two when they are pushed to the wall by the ruling elites. Organised labour has amply demonstrated that an injury to one is an injury to all. Similarly, they have shown to all of us that an injustice to one is indeed an injustice to all.
Comrade Joe Ajaero is not an ordinary Nigerian. He is the head and symbol of Nigerian workers. He is recognized in Nigeria and globally as the nation’s number one worker. Manhandling him and treating him like a common criminal in Owerri, Imo State, his home state is a grievous insult to all Nigerian workers. It is indeed an insult to all Nigerians because we are all Nigerian workers. It is a good measure that organized labour has grievously told the federal government and Imo State government, the security operatives and the political class that you don’t treat a Nigerian that way and get away with that brazen impunity in a democratic government.
No labour leader has been treated the way Ajaero was treated in Owerri to the best of my knowledge. Even in the hey days of military regimes, no labour leader was beaten to a pulp and dragged and threatened to be killed and thrown into a river the way Ajaero was brutalized. The viral picture showing his swollen face and eyes is so gory and disgusting that those who knew him could not recognize him anymore. The image of a brutalized Ajaero is a reminder that Nigeria is fast degenerating to a banana republic, a jungle if you like.
Those who brutalized Ajaero might not know the implications of their barbarism. They didn’t factor how organized labour would react to seeing their leader dehumanized and stripped of all human dignity because he went to Owerri to ensure that the government treats Imo workers and pensioners fairly. Ajaero’s ‘sin’ is his tenacity and audacity to ensure the welfare of Nigerian workers, which is also part of the primary function of government. His most grievous sin, according to government apologists, is going to Owerri to enforce the right of workers to protest and demand a fair deal from the government at a time very close to the November 11 off-cycle gubernatorial election.
That in itself does not constitute any sin. The talk about a grievous sin therefore does not arise. It is within his right as a labour leader to fight for the welfare of Nigerian workers in any part of the country at any time. He did not violate the laws of the country by doing so. Why must Election Day be observed as a holy day of obligation in line with the Christian faith? Why must inter-state movement be banned simply because an off-season election is taking place in one or more states and not even a general election? In America from where we thoughtlessly borrowed our jaundiced presidential system of government without copying in full its principles and ideals, people move about during elections, they go to work and choose when to vote.
Are we better than them? Are our elections free, fair and credible? Are our off-season and main season elections not rigged and compromised and the victims arrogantly told to go to court? And noting good comes from the courts these days despite the “all eyes on the judiciary” campaign. Even with all eyes on the apex court, its justices still gave questionable verdicts. Even the electoral umpire, INEC can no longer be trusted. Nigerians see INEC as a participant in an election and no longer a disinterested referee or party. Nigerians are equally beginning to see the electoral courts in the manner they see INEC. INEC and the courts now determine at will who wins an election in Nigeria and no longer the Nigerian voters. That is the absurdity Nigerians are living with.
The electoral umpire has continued to manifest brazen incapacity to conduct a free, fair and credible election despite all promises by is head, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to give Nigerians the best election ever in the history of the country. He failed in the 2023 general elections. He also failed in the November 11 off-cycle polls in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa states. You can gauge the mood of the nation after each election by listening to the losers and election observers. Tragically, there is even no guarantee that INEC will not fail in the 2027 general polls.
In Nigeria, the name of the political game is rigging, rigging and rigging. And if you complain go to court and nothing will come out of it. It is better to win an election in Nigeria by dubious means than to lose and then go to court and face double humiliation by the ministers in the temple of justice, who will brazenly tell you that there is even no need bringing the matter to the court for lack of merit. Next election season will witness wars, wars and wars because the election must be hard fought and won in the field whether by rigging, vote buying or inflation of results or all of them joined together.
Comrade Joe Ajaero did not do what Adams Oshiomhole or other past labour leaders had not done. Ajaero has always marshalled out cogent reasons before embarking on any labour intervention whether picketing, protesting or whatever, yet those in government and their friends won’t see the good side of Ajaero. They always see him as an enemy, who must be crushed. Therefore, it is commendable that organized labour stoutly rose to the occasion and challenged the establishment and their arrogance and disdain for Nigerian workers.
The nation was shut down for two days. The battered economy was shut down for two days and those in government panicked and called for a truce. This has shown that the only language the Nigerian government understands is force, aluta and aluta force. They don’t want to be handled with care. They need force and maximum force and labour has given them enough fire this time around. Labour has given the federal government a technical knockout in this grueling duel.
The government is gasping for air. It can no longer breathe. The NASS gate was locked and the lawmakers woke up to the reality of the situation that Nigerians are no longer breathing. The police quickly admitted they have arrested Ajaero’s attackers. Whether it is true or not, something is at least happening. Somebody is talking and somebody is listening. It is no longer a monologue or a headmaster addressing his pupils during a morning assembly.
You talk with action, they come in peace. The dictum, “if you want peace, prepare for war” is working with the labour aluta. Maybe, more of it will be needed to keep this government in perpetual check because of its overbearingness and uncaring attitude. Organised labour has shown that its manhood is still intact. It has demonstrated that its mojo is still strong and working effectively. It has somehow redeemed its battered image of being a seeming stooge of the government in power. When next Ajaero sneezes, the government will definitely catch cold and do the needful. Kudos to organized labour, kudos to Nigerian workers, kudos to all Nigerians for standing up against impunity and brazen injustice.
Although the aluta by labour has been suspended temporarily, the matter has not ended. The attackers of Ajaero and their willing collaborators must be brought to justice and given condign punishment. The government should address the economic challenges facing Nigerians, made worse by uncritical removal of fuel subsidy. The poverty in the land is pervasive. Millions of Nigerians have been driven into abject poverty and misery by government’s ill-digested policies.
Let government reverse many of its anti-people policies. No doubt, labour spoke with anger over the maltreatment of Ajaero. They also spoke with anger over the maltreatment of Nigerians by this government’s bad policies.
