Let me confess two things before we move into the main issue for today. The first of the two points is, what you are reading was supposed to appear a week before the May 1, 2025 Workers Day celebration.
Going by typical practice that would have met the dictates of topicality. It is good sometimes to give focus and full attention to matters of the moment. Provision of perspectives helps the task of searching for solutions. By now it should be clear to nearly all of us that we have become a system that thrives on routine and pass it for hard work, effectiveness and excellence. This is one of the banes of transformation in our country.
I left the discussion to see if we will re-enact the old order and May 1 came and it was about the same cry: “Workers are suffering, increase the wages”. The same line of thinking, analysis and solution we have pursued since our country became independent. For more than 64 years we are still on it. Something fundamental must be wrong with the way we go after our development efforts.
The other matter would be the disclosure that I was under pressure to discuss a work that would have appeared under the title, “This allure of the centre.” The defection of political office holders from their party to the one ruling at the centre, taking along with them offices they won has become not only alarming, it has become a cause for concern.
Such moves may appear simple on the surface and of no consequence but the truth is that embedded in such moves are seeds of retardation, instability and possible conflicts. A one-party state can emerge in the country but the country can’t survive its effects for too long. Something definitely will give in.
The reason the cross-carpeters give is that they want to link up with the centre. Unfortunately, even persons who went to very good tertiary institutions mouth the same excuse. It questions their depth of tutorship.
We have been told the state of the Nigerian worker is bad and like we do things everyone picks the slogan for what it really is and runs with it. About 90 percent of the leadership were on the strange song as they made their goodwill message to the workers on the day of their celebration. Past leaders who couldn’t do the easiest thing for workers, that is prompt payment of salaries on due dates fell on each other pontificating about the desirability of a virile workforce. Incumbent public office holders, many of them owing salaries and allowances, still gave wonderful, well crafted state addresses.
It didn’t matter to them that “action speaks better and louder than words.” Hypocrisy, pure wickedness or what, I don’t know. Somebody would have to educate me properly on what or how to describe such behaviours. Labour leaders too aren’t helping matters. If they had their thinking caps on the demand would have long gone past an increase in wages. There are numerous institutional structures needed to be put in place if workers fortune is to change in a very sustainable fashion.
The state of the Nigerian worker is pathetic. Calling them workers is a misnormer. We have succeeded in reducing them to slaves. Who is a worker and who is a slave? The key difference exists between both, highlighting some of them is very vital to the great future we crave for workers in the new Nigeria. A worker has autonomy and makes choices about their work, while a slave is forced into labour against their will.
We may not have the slave trade kind of physical force but circumstantial kind of exertions do exist and in fact very pervasive. Most workers in the country today would tell you they don’t like the job they are doing and if they had an alternative they would leave without blinking an eye. Those who have good standing are embarking on japa, and that is why the brain drain syndrome is massive.
The root cause isn’t a wrong job but work satisfaction. Workers receive fair compensation for their labour, while slaves are either not paid or given a paltry sum for huge work done. Governments would rather spend billions constructing roads than consider a living wage a top priority. The minimum wage was only recently raised to N70,000 which is still not enough to adequately feed one person for a month but the the disdain is confirmed by the fact the implementation has become like a rocket science. It is still a subject of labour disagreements in so many states. Nobody is sure the private sector has keyed in.
The work environment is hostile. What rights do the so-called workers have and to what extent are they implemented? Those should take our attention. There is no need to break our heads looking for ways to bring dignity to the labour force, what we require is to simply stage a return to some of the structures we inherited from the departing colonialists.
There is need to professionalize the departments. We have them in a very inchoate format, it is time to bring them to full life. Recruitment should be according to availability of vancacies. Establishments as welfare system should stop. This way figure of the workforce can be regulated to need and provision. The other day, Buba Galadima told the nation one of the daughters picked his phone and called the president, to tell him she needed a job in national oil corporation, a request the president acceded to. This is bastardization of due process with huge negative impact on workers dignity and efficiency. It shouldn’t happen in a sane society.
There should be workers institute. Matter of continuous training should be taken for granted. We ought to restore ministerial and department bus systems including housing estates for workers built and allocated to them on owner-occupier basis. We can›t forget vehicle loans. Above all, establishments should charge very moderate fees for services. They ought to earn income. Truth is a worker is very worthy of his wages. Paid as and at when due