Bimbola Oyesola

With the recent report from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that the number of persons unemployed in the country increased by 3.3 million, raising the combined rate of unemployment and under-employment from 40 per cent in the third quarter of 2017 to 43.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2018, Nigeria may be sitting on a time bomb. 

According to the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, Nigeria as a nation should be worried about the increasing pool of graduates, skilled and unskilled youth in the unemployment market especially in rural unemployment. Wabba, who was recently re-elected to lead NLC for another four years, warned that any attempt to sack workers under any guise will further complicate the situation.

The NLC President, who was also elected President of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), lamented the state of the nation’s economy, which he said remains largely import-driven and dependent, adding that despite the growth in size, as the biggest in Africa, the gap between the rich and poor in Nigeria has continued to widen.

He also spoke on other issues such as the 2019 general election, minimum wage and restoration of textile industry, among  others.

Excerpts:

 

2019 election

For the 2019 general election, we call on the election management body – Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) – and indeed all stakeholders, to ensure that we have peaceful, free, fair and credible elections in February and March, 2019. Congress will continue to hold both the players and the referee in this very important election to account on their words and conduct. Nigerians must rise above partisan interests and become the winners of this election, not political parties and their candidates. The truth is that we do not have any other country than Nigeria to call our own.

We join ITUC in expressing our concern about the implications for democracy of the emergence of powerful information technology companies, which have been able to use data to influence elections and shape public opinion.

The emergence of those corporations poses an enormous threat and is likely to be inimical to the progressive reforms we seek for democracy, peace and social justice.

Core values

The theme for this year’s NLC 12 Delegate Conference is “Towards a Decade of Activism for the Promotion of Labour Unity, National Rebirth and Development”. This theme resonates with the efforts of NLC in the past 10 years to foster solidarity in the labour movement and engage government and employers on values we hold dear especially issues of good governance and protection of human, social cum workers’ rights.

Our leadership has led from the front in many struggles to free workers from exploitation. We have promoted and defended the economic, political, social rights and wellbeing of Nigerian workers, pensioners and our trade unions. We have fought for decent work. We have resisted casualisation at workplaces. We have canvassed for good governance at all levels, championed the fight against corruption, promoted social justice and respect for the rule of law. Overall, we have defended the cause of a Nigerian nation that is just, democratic, transparent, inclusive and prosperous – a society built on social justice and where all citizens can access education, healthcare and can create sustainable wealth.

In defending and promoting the cause of Nigerian workers, our focus is to build workers’ power through organising workers. We have worked tirelessly to promote causes that can enhance the quality of life and improve the income and other working conditions of workers. We have paid close attention to workers’ education through our increasingly improved education programmes especially the Rain and Harmattan Schools.

Our collective leadership has provided voice to the voiceless. As a matter of top priority, we have confronted the huge inequality gap in our society. Like they say, charity begins at home. We have expanded the platform of participation for our women and youths. For the first time in the history of Congress, we have created a democratic youth structure with visible representation at the highest organs of Congress. We have also strived towards the attainment of gender equality and improvements in the conditions of women in the world of work and society in general. We have encouraged our affiliates to emulate this.

Despite the challenges that trailed the last Delegates Conference, which took a good part of our time and efforts trying to resolve, we have kept faith with our programme of “Returning to our Founding Principles” especially as inspired by our leadership retreats in Calabar and Sokoto in 2015 and 2016. We pursued our founding principles of commitment to social justice and investing in genuine struggle for workers and citizenry rights to improved working and living conditions, thus earning the confidence of our members and the global trade union movement.

 National economy

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Amidst diverse challenges, our national economy showed some promises in recent times. According to NBS, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 1.81 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms in the third quarter of 2018. This is slightly better than the growth of 1.17 per cent achieved in the third quarter of 2017. The recent GDP growth and increase in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) are signs of the steady recovery of our economy from recession. Despite these results, our economy remains largely import-driven and dependent. The growth in the size of our economy – the biggest in Africa – is still non-inclusive as the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen. Though described as mixed, our economy is essentially rent seeking and still suffers from systemic distortions.

According to report released by ActionAid, “there is a correlation between corruption and poverty in Nigeria. Nigeria scores high in the corruption perception index and scores low in human development index; implying that because the incidence of corruption is high, investment in citizens’ welfare is low.”

The report went further to state that “poverty levels in some states where governors were found to be guilty of misusing and converting public funds into private use is higher than in states where governors were judicious in the use of public funds. This suggests that if stolen resources were deployed to address the various poverty challenges in the states, the poverty rate would decline.”

In its annual report of 2012, EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) posited that the failure to deliver social services, endemic problem of power supply and the collapse of infrastructure are all linked to corruption.

We must continue to instil transparency and accountability in the polity. We, therefore, once again demand for the removal of immunity against criminal prosecution, especially corruption cases for all political office holders as obtains in other economies. The fight for good governance shall continue to be a priority of the Congress.

Unemployment and under-employment 

 The NBS report for the third quarter of 2018 indicates that the general number of persons unemployed in the country has increased by 3.3 million. The report further indicates that the combined rate of unemployment and under-employment rose from 40 per cent in the third quarter of 2017 to 43.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2018. We should be worried that the increased pool of graduates, skilled and unskilled youths in the unemployment market, especially rural unemployment, is a time bomb. Any attempt to sack workers under any guise as it happened in Kaduna State will complicate the situation.

In 2016, we witnessed an 80 per cent increase in the pump price of refined petroleum products. Our national currency, the naira, also suffered massive devaluation of up to 120 per cent between 2016 and 2017. The resultant inflation has almost entirely wiped off the purchasing power of workers and citizens. According to NBS, unemployment rate in Nigeria soared to a record high of 23.01 per cent in the third quarter of 2018.

The over-dependence of our economy on crude oil revenue and the mismanagement of our vast oil wealth through corruption perpetrated by successive governments continue to expose us to severe shocks from price fluctuation in the international crude oil market. This was how we landed in the last recession. While we commend the efforts of the current government on economic diversification, particularly through agriculture, we are not unmindful of serious structural issues that undermine the progress being made, deeply limit inclusive growth and impact negatively on sustainable development. We will, therefore, continue to call on government to pay serious attention to these issues.

The private sector

In most countries of the world, the private sector is the engine room of economic development and growth. We have a burgeoning private sector in Nigeria that contributes significantly to our GDP in every sector of our economy. Yet, our private sector is still beset with a lot of teething challenges.

In an environment where business financing, public procurement processes and the tax systems are fundamentally challenged, the private sector is highly limited in its capacity for growth and contribution to national development. Furthermore, there is the challenge of insufficient power supply and the attendant high costs of alternative power supply.

Organised labour believes that our private sector needs to be encouraged by government. We also posit that such support must be transparent and inclusive. Government support to the private sector should also be dispensed in a manner that engenders the creation of sustainable decent jobs and improvement in the lives of Nigerians.

Industrialisation/manufacturing

Industry is a key driver for sustainable jobs and national development. Unfortunately, Nigeria has fallen off the perking order in industrialisation and manufacturing. Despite being Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria lags behind in Manufacturing Value Added (MVA). In order for Nigeria to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, it must urgently innovate and industrialise. We must stop exporting raw cottons, crude oil, mineral resources only to be importing finished products. Nigeria must make what it consumes, else, we will be consumed by the rest of the world.

Textile industry

There was a time in Nigeria when the textile factories in Lagos, Onitsha, Kano, Zaria, Kaduna and other places employed more Nigerians than the public sector. Today, the textile industry is a shabby relic of its former glory. From more than 175 textile factories, we can only boast of less than 27 surviving ones today. Many textile factories have been converted to religious and social centres owing to poor policy choices by government, breakdown of the domestic cotton-textile value chain, poor energy supply, counterfeiting and smuggling of cheaper but inferior textile materials.