The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is displeased with the “opulence” in government while workers’ salaries are not paid and employees are being told to tighten their belts.
In its New Year message, which also serves as a review of the state of the nation in 2014, the NLC predicted a tough 2015, urging workers to brace for hard times but warned against imposition of selective austerity measures and rationalisation of the work force.
It said: “We support government initiatives to tax the rich through luxury taxes. More importantly, we are convinced that the surest way to manage the budget under austerity is to reduce the cost of governance. Bloated prerequisites of political office holders must be cut. Prerequisites and comfort of politicians need to reflect the reality of the times.
“Mr President and the State House must lead in this regard. The size of the presidential fleet (there are 11 planes in the fleet), the cost of running the State House and the retinue of political jobbers can all be reasonably cut without reducing the effectiveness of the Presidency.”
The message signed by NLC President Abdulwaheed Omar asked workers to reject politicians with anti-workers policy in this year’s election.
Any governor who cannot pay workers’ salaries as at when due has no moral right to take his own salaries and allowances, the NLC argued.
The NLC President frowned at the treatment of workers by some state governments and federal agencies in 2014 and the avoidable strikes that paralysed services in the health and education sectors.
He lamented the non payment of December salaries to workers in 11 states before Christmas and some federal ministries and asked workers in the three states that are owing salaries for between three and eight months to immediately began the process of an industrial action.
“Government’s behaviour further undermined the fragile peace and capacities in the sectors.
“Of the 30 states reporting as of the 30th of December, 11 subjected their workers to a Christmas/New Year celebration without the December salary. Three of these, Benue, Plateau and Osun, owe their workers arrears of salaries ranging from three to eight months! Some federal government employees in the ministries of education, labour and productivity, among others, are owed arrears of salaries ranging from one to three months.
The NLC President expressed concern that little was being done to deepen democratic culture in the polity as the government, through the institutions of the State, especially the police, has continued to demonstrate unacceptable intolerance of political opposition.
Congress, he said, is also concerned that political debates during the year “were non-issue-based and largely centred on mundane and primordial stripes”, adding that “there were cases of gross human rights abuses, especially the cold-blooded murders in Abuja and Zaria in the name of pre-emptive strikes against Boko Haram”.
The NLC, said: “Government, however, deserves commendation for giving the Human Rights Commission free and unfettered freedom to conduct investigations and to reach un-influenced conclusions.
“Despite the rating of the economy in the year as the biggest in Africa, there was little by way of practical performance: lending rates remained high, making the cost of doing business unreasonable; the Naira was hugely devalued in the last quarter, jerking up the cost of living and preventing Nigerians from benefitting from falling crude oil prices; the economy remained largely import-based, in spite of the volume of the so-called foreign direct investment.
“Not surprisingly, unemployment figures remain unacceptably high; crime rates quadrupled, poverty deepened, energy sector consistently operated at its lowest ebb ever, putting a question mark on the wisdom behind privatising the sector. Paradoxically, this poor service was marked by inexplicable high tariffs.
“Insurgency rose to unprecedented levels, leading to loss of territories, destruction of lives and properties, refugee problems and threat to food production. On a non-physical plane, the psyche of Nigerians was thoroughly brutalized.
”The inability to locate and rescue the Chibok girls remains a dagger piercing the heart of the nation. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families of these girls as we celebrate the New Year.
”Insecurity came by other means in the form of kidnappings, pastoralist/farmer clashes, communal/sectarian skirmishes, etc. In spite of government’s sworn commitment and the presence of a multi-agency task force in the Niger Delta, crude oil theft assumed a phenomenon in the year, accounting for as much as 30 per cent of national output.
“This has created loss of revenues and divestments. Closely linked to this horrendous crime is the degradation of the environment by illegal refineries, oil spills, cover-ups and related incidents.
“It would appear that government does not have a structured response to the present volatility in the crude oil market sparked by commercial shale oil mining and deepened by crashing prices across the globe. Practically all the measures mooted or taken so far by government smack of shock and panic and clearly expose our vulnerability.
“Clearly, this would have been avoidable if our suggestions had been taken on board by government. For instance, we recall advising government time without number to boost the capacity of domestic refining instead of depending on imports whose landing cost is dependent on prevailing exchange rate and other motivations not far from usury.
“In consideration of the vagaries of a mono-cultural economy, we had similarly over the years urged the government to diversify the economy by developing other sectors of the economy.
“In light of the following, we find it necessary to urge the government to take sustainably viable and proactive steps instead of punitive measures against workers whose quality of life has already been negatively affected by devaluation and other measures.
“We condemn the imposition of exploitative electricity tariff and urge caution in case this leads to some further unpleasantries.
“We still stand by our time-tested position that the only permanent solution to the crises of petroleum product pricing is adequate domestic refining. Accordingly, we urge government to put in place realistic appropriate legislation and policy in order to realise this.
“The year 2015 is an election year whose outcome will mark a watershed in the history of Nigeria’s democracy. We call for fair, transparent and credible elections. We insist Nigeria is bigger than any partisan interests and its sovereignty and inviolability are sacrosanct. Workers are enjoined to come out en mass to perform their civic duty as well as defend their votes. Power lies in the voter’s card.
“Government is also called upon to fashion out a comprehensible and implementable national security strategy that is capable of dealing with the myriad of threats to our unity and sovereignty.”
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