By Paul Nwosu
Another May Day has come and gone with its familiar rituals of march pasts by different labour unions and their lengthy speeches with litanies of demands and lamentations. Typically, too, state governors, many of them still struggling to pay their monthly regular salaries and the prescribed minimum wage, responded by telling them what they wanted to hear. Not minding their deficit in existing mandatory obligations to their workers, they still promised more goodies, ostensibly to smoothen their political paths through the coming elections. What mattered was to make their audience happy and leave the arena with a sense of expectancy even when they may return next year with same list of requests and unfulfilled promises made on this year’s Worker’s Day.
However, the case in Anambra State was quite different. Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, governor of Anambra State, came clean before his people. He deftly painted a picture of what was practicable in the light of financial challenges in the country and the state. Never in recent memory has any elected leader been this honestly frank. And this obviously derives from his campaign promise to be transparent in all his dealings with the people of Anambra State.
Having listened to the catalogue of labour’s demands as enumerated by Comrades Chinwe Orizu, chairperson of Nigeria Labour Congress, and Chris Ogbonna of Trade Union Congress, respectively, Soludo, whose response was conversational and interactive, appreciated Anambra State workers’ plights but was quick to remind them that they cannot be happy even if all their demands are met without addressing the thorny issues of insecurity and lack of basic social amenities that guarantee economic stability and improved quality of life. Nothing is wrong with agitation in so far as it is done within the ambit of the law; but what we witness these days, according to the governor, is a situation where innocent people are either shot and killed or kidnapped for ransom. He insisted it was nothing but criminality, which had to be checked, as it was inconsistent with the liveable, prosperous homeland he envisaged.
These notwithstanding, the governor assured the workers that he would sit down with the Secretary to the Government and the Head of Service to crunch the numbers and determine what could be done about their array of requests, given limited resources. He further stressed that his government was committed to improving their working conditions with technology because they are veritable partners in realising the new order he promised Anambra people.
He lamented the predicament of pensioners who were owed their gratuities for so long. He said it was unfair that people would work for 35 years and leave without collecting their gratuities, which were supposed to help them settle down in retirement. While Gov. Soludo assured the pensioners that the backlog of their gratuities would be gradually paid from the rear (that is, where payment stopped), those who would retire within the life of his administration would get their gratuities on the same day they retire.
Soludo called on labour to progressively work with his government to achieve its set goals, instead of still lobbying for the retention of archaic practises that were tantamount to going ‘back to Egypt.’ He then reiterated the banning of motor park touts, popularly known in Anambra State as “agboro,” who collect tolls from transporters through all manner of coercion and bullying at bus termini. He noted that their modus operandi was retrogressive and not in sync with the new smart cities that would eventually evolve in Anambra State.
His idea of motor park and bus cum ‘keke’ transport operation is one where the operator pays a mandatory fee to the officially designated bank and collects a ticket or tag that allows him to operate unmolested until it is due for renewal. Thenceforth, the only people that will work at the park will be sweepers and cleaners.
The local governments also got cheery news from the new governor, who emphatically announced that power would be devolved to the local governments to allow them do their statutory duties. But in the interim, he would appoint transition committee chairmen who would be there for a short time to allow government carry out some fundamental restructuring, after which local government elections would hold.
On a lighter note, the governor took a swipe at the labour unions for ordering their branded T-shirts for the parade from China. He told his audience that when his aides brought his own T-shirt to be worn for the occasion and he saw the label, he opted to wear his “akwete” to make a statement on the need to patronize home-made products.
“That’s the only way we can sustain our local industries and provide the much needed employment,” he explained. “When we buy foreign products, we create employment for foreigners and helping them keep their companies in business”.
He then charged labour to wear locally made attire at next year’s Worker’s Day celebration.