It was a day of honour and laurels two days ago when workers across the globe celebrated another Labour Day. Indeed, Nigerian workers did not shy away from the big ceremony, which began as the International Labour Day 117 years ago.
In usual fashion, workers in solidarity, took part in several activities that showcased their might and appraised their lot in the comity of things. Even with the coronavirus pandemic, which has reduced contact among persons, the celebration continued today in many countries like Nigeria that has fittingly declared a public holiday in honour of her workers.
Traditionally, the biggest concerns of the nation’s workforce hover on issues of pay and remuneration, particularly the contentious issue of minimum wage.
This, after all, is not surprising, considering the ever hostile economic environment in the country in which workers’ salaries cannot really take them home.
Again, workers always express their resentment about working so hard, but often being left unpaid for months on end, recession or no recession.
Social security is sparse and those who spent their time building the economic commonwealth of the country have had their pensions stolen by bureaucrats, technocrats, or those derogatorily branded as ‘pen robbers’.
Besides, Nigerian workers want the government to take quality initiatives that will help to address high unemployment rate, as well as take ‘economically sensible issues’ such as diversifying the economy by reducing over-dependence on petroleum.
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Yes, the authorities and leaders may have taken their turns and promised to cater to the needs of workers, but we at ThisNigeria think that this occasion should not just be for annual rituals and sloganeering.
More than that, we feel that this occasion should provide an opportunity for our political leaders to brainstorm on how to rejuvenate the ailing economy, and by extension, make an average worker a happier person. This is so because a nation’s wealth rests on the strength of the health of its workers. Whether those at the helm of affairs recognise this as a fact, however, is debatable.
We identify with our workers and in their collective struggle to better their lot. We start with the bigger: Minimum Wage. Long-drawn and time-beaten, the new minimum wage legislation pegged at N30,000 is only an item on the list of wish.
States say they are finding it hard to pay, but some of their chief executives and those in the parliament have stupendous money stashed away in Dubai, UAE or Switzerland.
There have been cases where the pay and emoluments of workers have been looted or brazenly mismanaged. There are also instances in this country where workers have been denied wages for years, and it seems there is nothing nobody could do about that.
How a worker meets his or her obligations to the family, the society or even the state, is only left for imagination. To pay school fees, hospital fees, visit the mechanic, or even secure food, becomes literally a war.
Perhaps, the import of Labour Day is lost on all and sundry. Recall that Workers’ Day started as part of organised efforts of socialist and communist groups to establish a time for honouring workers and the working class.
Nigerians simply see Labour Day as a long weekend to spend with family and friends, a chance to take a short vacation, or at most, a day to honour workers of every industry and speak out for better working conditions.
But beyond the usual marches at every squares, schools, song-chanting in the stadia by different cadres of the labour movement, there is need to step up the game on labour activism and give it the verve it deserves.
Gone should be the days when labour leaders are accused of collaborating with the powers-that-be to deny workers their entitlements because of private considerations.
Times are hard. Workers are dying without getting their benefits. The average Nigerian worker is grappling with the challenges of food, shelter, clothing, education, healthcare, inflation, among others.
The whole land is polluted with the poison of strikes. The recurring ASUU, doctors, judicial workers’ strikes easily come to mind. Corruption is festering because of low, irregular and non-existent pay and there is aggravated depression and mental health problems among the working class.
People are extremely hungry and yet the state continues to borrow. There is no time that workers feel they are more subjected to aspects of state irresponsibility than now. Even the opposition appears to be sleeping.
We can do better.
