Factional President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Jeo Ajaero, tells Editor, Politics/Features, EMEKA ALEX DURU, the reasons for non-participation of his group in last week’s Labour strike against fuel price increase, genesis of impasse in the Congress and activities of his camp in dealing with the federal government.
Why did your faction of NLC opt out of the strike?
The other faction just gave the directive on the action to commence on Wednesday (May 18). And the government invited us for discussions on all the issues. At the meeting, members of the other faction said they would not meet with us. They objected to the government meeting with us. In that case, there was no way we could go on strike with them on Wednesday.
But as the deliberations were on, we were able to secure the setting up of a committee that will report back to us in two weeks, to look at the N145 price for petrol and the need to review it, look at the issue of the N500 billion Social Investment Fund as provided in the budget and how to manage it, without it being like the SURE-P (Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme), so that it would be beneficial to Nigerians, look at the issue of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) which is the regulatory agency in charge of fixing of prices, and reconstitute the board within that period, so that they can do their job and set up a tripartite committee to review the minimum wage.
These were issues that, historically, we had gone on strike for one or two weeks and had returned to discuss. So, this time around, we reasoned that it would be better to go on strike when dialogue must have failed. These were some of the issues that made us to go the way we did.
But the argument of the other group said that the government did not consult them before fixing the price, hence the need to revert to the former price before any negotiation.
We were guided by historical experiences. From the time of the then General Olusegun Obasanjo till now, there have been cases of increase in petroleum prices. If you check, the trend had been that they would do the announcement without negotiation with us, following which we would go on strike or protest after which we would come back to negotiate. Except in the case of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua who reduced something minimally, there had never been a case where the issue was reversal to the old price.
When it gets to the issue of reversal to status quo ante, ego comes in, and when ego comes in, nothing can be achieved. If you go back to the case of 2012, then President Goodluck Jonathan even announced the N97 on his own. There was no agreement. If any person is in doubt, let him come out with the agreement.
So, with this experience, coupled the Ayuba Wabba group declaring the strike to commence last Wednesday – barely one or two days of mobilisation, there was no how it could be successful. Before a union goes into an action, it would buy time, move round, sensitise and mobilise the members. There should be leaflets, pamphlets. You need to convince the workers and other Nigerians on why the action must take place. But even if you want to embark on strike, within the two weeks that we are negotiating with them, you should be able to explain to the people the import of the action you want to take. These are some of the areas we felt that as operators in the system, we should be thorough and strategic.
Some people are accusing your faction of selling out to the government. Are you not worried about that?
That is the easiest question to ask. Of course one of the reasons we pulled out of whatever the other group is doing is that they went there and were trying to strike a deal with the government side to write off the N2 billion loan given to NLC for its transport scheme. But government refused, insisting that if the loan had to be written off, they had to pay something since the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had paid a certain percentage of its own loan.
But we told them that what we had at hand was not an issue of loan negotiation, but an issue that affected the whole Nigerians.
I don’t know what is meant by sell-out. That was why we even said if the other group had something better, we could run with it. But if after this while you don’t have anything on the ground except strike, which you cannot even carry out and you turn around to accuse the other person who had got something of sell-out, I can’t understand you. Unless you have any evidence that any person had given me even a sachet of water or had cajoled me, then, we can discuss that.
Are you also not worried that government may be playing divide-and-rule on the Labour Union?
Perhaps, they may start doing so now. But before that meeting, they were not. Why do I say that? As at the time we went into the meeting, it wasn’t the government that divided us because they couldn’t have invited us together. We, on our own, could have agreed on a particular position and should have maintained it and not for one group to say, ‘no, I don’t have the same position with that person and we cannot meet together’. That is the fact, unless the government will start now to play that role of divide-and-rule.
But even with the TUC that they (Wabba group) met with, they are not with them. They pulled out and preferred dialogue. I have asked those ones (Wabba group) to present something better than what I have gotten. They are three groups now; which one has gotten something better? It is after that that we will come down and look at our negotiating ability. So, it is not a case of sitting down and calling another person a thief or whatever. We have moved beyond that.
Do we take it that you are in support of the fuel price increase?
Never, never! But you see, the approach to engage an opponent is important. The fuel price increase is not a Labour issue; it is an issue that affects all Nigerians. There are about four million Nigerians on employment. If we discuss Labour issues alone, what happens to the other 155 million Nigerians or more? So, Labour should not appropriate the monopoly of whatever happens with the increase.
The price increase has the tendency to affect everybody. How we oppose it is very important. But even in opposing it, do you adopt a half-measure approach? You need to work on it. And in dealing with a government that came in barely one year ago through mass support with a change mantra, for you to move against it, you have to deconstruct whatever popularity that brought it in place. If you do not, you move against the trend and get stranded somewhere along the line.
These were some of the things we saw and decided to work towards them. But on the N145 price, even till now, they have not been able to explain to us the rationale. And we are asking: Is it price fixing or are you regulating pricing in a deregulated market? These are some of the things we need to know. If you have deregulated, you have to leave it to market forces and not to fix prices. If you are fixing prices, you are arrogating to yourself the position of market forces. These are issues we need to engage them on.
They have been making the argument that they are not the people that messed the system; that they came and met an empty purse. So you need a technical team to look at that.
We as a union even face the threat of losing more members; more workers. Because more than 20 states are not even paying the N18,000 minimum wage. They say it is because of lack of fund. So, we need to be holistic in our approach to issues now, not “we no gree o, we no go gree”.
With the seeming failure of the strike called by the Wabba faction, would you say you have been vindicated?
The issue is that, historically, the ingredients, the power, the milk of the NLC is no longer there. Before you have an NLC that is functional, the bank, electricity and petroleum unions must be there. With these, they can organise a successful protest. Even, their members can come out and join any of these protests. But when you talk of an action that will make government to, within 48 hours, reverse its decision or to talk with you, it is the one by either the banks, electricity or petroleum. These groups are not with them (Wabba faction).
In that case, they can organise protest even in the next one month. But I am talking of something that can paralyse activities and have desired effects.
Can NLC ever be one again in Nigeria, given the current development?
We have passed this road before. In 1988, NLC, in Benin, held separate congresses. They split into two and held different congresses. Unfortunately, again, the key players happened to come from the health workers and electricity unions. Tatai Shamar, who was president of the electricity union, led one group, while Alli Ciroma led the other group.
It took the intervention of the then military president, Ibrahim Babangida, to set up a sole administrator arrangement. After a transitional period, NLC came together again. I think that NLC can still come together.
It was the same incident that saw NLC and some people arrogating to themselves the power to be everything that saw the emergence of TUC as the second Labour centre. In 1978, before the incident, there were about four Labour centres. In South Africa, they are about three or four. Even this split here is happening in their major union in South Africa. But it does not mean that even with five or six Labour centres in Nigeria, we cannot team up and fight the issues.
So, NLC can still, if that is our desire, work together, remove bias, remove injustice. What we are seeing now is the private sector unions versus the public sector unions. After Ciroma, Paschal Bafyau, Hassan Sunmonu from the public sector unions, Adams Oshiomhole was the only private sector union man that came up.
When he finished, the public sector unions came up again. After Abdulwaheed Omar, we agreed that it should be the turn of the private sector unions. But they refused.
So, you can see the situation. When I mention the unions in the other group, they are the private sector unions. And nobody is addressing our issues. If 20,000 workers are sacked from the electricity, petroleum or even the banking sector, you do not get any protests. But if 1,000 workers are sacked in any state of the federation, you see NLC being drawn out as if the Congress is reserved for the public sector workers alone.
These were some of the issues that created that division in 1988. And they are back again. But I believe that with unity of purpose and sincerity, we can get back on track.
Do you still lay claims to NLC presidency, given the thinking by many that the contentious issues have been resolved and the Congress agreeing to go with Wabba as the President?
I don’t know where Nigerians got that assumption from. In the last meeting where the whole thing was to have been resolved which Oshiomhole addressed with past NLC presidents in attendance, it was announced that we had to run an all-inclusive Congress. That’s their word, unless anybody heard anything to the contrary. I thought that is moving forward.
But if you had watched last year’s May Day and the last one, you would notice that each group had its own May Day, as well as its May Day Committee. Even the other group (Wabba faction), while preparing its own minimum wage proposal to the federal government, projected N56,000. My group proposed N90,000. So, contrary to the issue of having an all-inclusive NLC, we have never worked together.
You will also notice that while the other group has been concentrating on public sector issues, we have been looking at issues in the private sector. If you had been monitoring the issue of Ikeja (Lagos) electricity issue, you would be hearing of NLC protesting. That is our own group of NLC. We are attending to the problems of the unions in the private sector while they are working on theirs.
Does it not bother you that Nigerians have a very low opinion of the Labour movement now?
I don’t even know where they have a very high opinion. Nigerians’ opinion on the political class is even damning. So, I don’t really know where the opinion is high. But why am I saying this without holding brief for the Labour movement and its operators? Why I am saying this is that you get the reflection of the country either as a teacher, journalist, or unionist from whatever is happening there.
Would you say that it was the failure of the Wabba group to get the N2 billion loan from government written off that informed their going on strike?
I won’t say that. But I think part of the motivating factors for the strike is the government talking with Ajaero. But I know that if we had agreed to look into these issues for which they protested, they would look at the other option. It was an issue that had to do with ego. Ordinarily, they would agree with the committee arrangement. They could even insist on the committee working for two days or one week. In the committee, they could equally make their point if what they are looking for is price reversal. If they succeed in the price reversal, no Nigerian would oppose it. But it was a matter of ego, hence their option to take the other way.
With your group going into negotiation with the government, what is the minimum demand?
When you are negotiating, you don’t expose it. We had the committee set up on Tuesday (May 17). We will go back and articulate our position for those who are going to represent us there. I am not even among the people representing our group. But they will report back. We will meet and articulate positions for them. I will not, independently, dictate to them an agenda to pursue. Our group will articulate that.
What if the negotiation fails to yield any result, would your group go for industrial action?
If the government decides not to agree with all these issues that they had agreed with us on the need to address them, every person would know that we are justified to look for any alternative. I say this without prejudice to my colleagues in the group. But I think that government equally knows what will happen when the electricity supply is cut, when the petroleum sector refuses to lift crude or when the banks are shut. These are the people they are dealing with in my own group. I think they will equally be conscious of that.
