From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
A former senator from Rivers South East Senatorial District, Sen. Magnus Abe, has called on the organized labour in Nigeria to engage the government in building social amenities and not just to ask for money as that would worsen the economy.
Abe made the call while speaking on a television programme in Abuja over the weekend.
He said the amenities would provide comfort and convenience for the basic needs of the workers.
Abe said, “Functional electricity, efficacious and sustainable health care, effective and affordable education is the fulcrum on which a quality life revolves.”
The Senator said, “I don’t believe that they are talking for the workers because if you are a labour movement, when you are discussing this kind of issue, you are not going to sit down and start calculating what one individual will need to buy his own car, fuel it, pay his own medical bills. That’s not how a country works.”
Abe, who is also a former Secretary to the Government of Rivers State, stated that if labour was looking at what is best for the interest of the Nigerian worker, labour should not just say government should give everybody N1 million or more because anybody who understands economics knows that if you give everybody one million, the money will be useless to them. In less than a month, inflation will make everything one million naira, and the one million naira will turn to ten naira. So the people will suffer.”
He argued that when you go to negotiate with government, you don’t talk as if you are going to make every individual have money to be his own government.
“You must engage the government for the needs of the people. What do people need money for? People need money for medical care. People need money for transportation. People need money for housing. People need money for school fees. There are different reasons why people need money.
“If you live in London, the British government does not pay everybody enough money to buy their own car. But they run an underground rail system that makes it cheap for everybody in London to be able to move around whether you have a car or not. And they give concessions to the elderly, to students, to children. They have all sorts of rebates.
“So with just 30 pounds you can move around London to everywhere you want to go for one month. You don’t need to own a car. So if British labour are going to negotiate with the British government they won’t say pay everybody enough for them to have their own car, and fuel it, how is that going to work?
“Why is Labour not discussing education? Not discussing how to revamp the schools. They are not discussing housing for the Nigerian workers. They are not putting up anything for mortgages and all that for public housing. They are not discussing public transportation. They are not discussing any of the things that the worker really needs to be an efficient worker. All they are focusing on is give everybody enough money. What kind of discussion is that? How will that help people. So, if your focus is on Nigerian workers, you should know what the problems are”.
He averred that even if you are an honest person in Nigeria, you must have money to pay cash for everything, because the government doesn’t do the things they are supposed to do.