2023: We seek to send labour agenda for political class at federal, state, LG —NLC President

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, in a message to all chairmen of its state chapters, has instructed that all workers and their dependents should register and get their voter cards.

Wabba stated that the card is a valued tool that workers must use to decide who gets elected in the next election.

Stating the demands and agenda of workers to the politicians concerning the political future of Nigeria and in particular, the 2023 general election, Comrade Wabba, during “Workers’ political conference”, said, “The 2022 NLC Workers’ Political Conference seeks to set the labour agenda as a guide to our affiliates and workers and for engagement with Nigeria’s political class at federal, state, local government and ward levels, especially as we approach the 2023 general election and beyond. Our priorities are eminently captured in our charter of demands which seeks answers to the questions of development in Nigeria.

“To say that Nigeria is at a political crossroads would not be a statement of alarm. It would be a factual construction of our reality. With 2023 in view, there is a lot of politicking, intrigues and subterfuge in the political space. Every indication shows that the polity is once again being overheated. Sadly, as it has become the norm with our cycle of broken politics, the polity is not being heated with questions and answers on how the current political mandate has been used by political office holders.

“The polity is not being overheated with concerns on how the current ruling elites have honoured the socio-economic rights of Nigerians in Chapter two of the 1999 Constitution. The polity is not being overheated with new ideas of how politicians can meet the expectations of Nigerians who want constant power to power their potential, motorable roads, adequate security that will keep us from always looking over our shoulders and living wages that will offer workers a chance at decent living.

“The near-absence and acute deficit of serious engagement with these existential political concerns have provided the context for this Workers’ Political Conference. We have thought hard and long about how our political elites have treated the national questions of good governance, sustainable development and social justice. We are sceptical of any real commitment to address our developmental concerns. It is difficult to fault our pessimism. Not with the way collective bargaining agreements, workers remuneration and trade union rights are tossed aside.

“The purpose of this political conference themed ‘Commitment to national emancipation and development through effective engagement by Nigerian workers’ is to reconstruct the critical bridge of issue-based politics that accommodates the interests of Nigerian workers and people. Our determination is that in the run up to the 2023 elections, we must not allow professional politicians to evade critical questions of national development.

“This is why we have developed a Workers Charter of Demands. Our Charter of Demands prioritises equity, fairness and social justice. Our Charter of Demands asks for free and quality education to tertiary levels for every Nigerian child.

“We commend the signing of the Electoral Act 2022 into law. It is helpful that the Act allows INEC to fully deploy electronic voting systems for future elections. We hope that this will help us achieve one-man-one-vote and one-woman-one-vote. We expect workers’ votes to count in 2023. We expect free, fair and credible elections. We urge INEC and security agencies to stamp out the menace of vote-buying and electoral violence during the 2023 polls. INEC should also perfect the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System to drastically reduce resort to incidence forms and disenfranchisement of eligible voters. In 2023, it is our collective responsibility to ensure that all votes count.

“In case you are still wondering why Nigerian workers are now very passionate about engagement with partisan politics, I must say that apart from threading the path that our forebears trod even before independence, we are also interested in expanding the frontiers of industrial relations which is fundamentally political. This is why workers have organised to take power or have great influence in political decisions in Britain, Australia, Canada, United States, Brazil, Scandinavian countries including Norway, Denmark, Sweden and even close to us in South Africa.

“Nigerian workers will not be left behind. South of the Sahara, we must set the pace. Certainly, we are not the political illiterates described by Bertolt Brecht who said he did not know that the price of beans, petrol, house rent and so on are all products of political decisions. Therefore, be ready to join us when our campaign hits your geo-political zone, state, local government, ward, and polling unit,” he said.