Remarkably, a Bill sponsored by Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos) seeking to provide for the review of the national minimum wage every five years is being considered by the National Assembly. However, it is also important to observe that an increase in money wages will not secure any betterment in the conditions of living unless there is plentiful supply of food and goods since inflation occasioned by economic recession is a proximate cause of the continuous clamour for increased minimum wage by workers across the country. Of note, the right to strike, which serves as a complement of employees’ rights, has been subject of much statutory regulations over the years in view of the enactment of the Trade Disputes Act, Trade Union Act, and the Trade Disputes (Essential Services) Act. It is apt to pontificate that industrial actions become the last resort after the failure of protracted representations to the government for improved conditions of service to meet the very much increased cost of living, which has become unbearable, leaving pensioners, workers and the growing numbers of unemployed people who have been most seriously hit by the rise in prices, in pains.
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) embarked on a nationwide strike on September 4, 2017, protesting the sack of some of their colleagues, non-payment of “skipping” entitlement, non-inclusion in the IPPIS platform and non-payment of their salary arrears, among other demands. This has crippled all health services at secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities across the nation. In the same vein, the Academic Staff Union of Universities embarked on its annual strike festival since signing the 2009 agreement with a view to making our ivory towers become world class and improve their global ranking.
Also, we should not forget that aviation labour unions and affiliates of the United Labour Congress (ULC), the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) and the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) have notified the Federal Government through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) of their resolve to ground Nigeria’s airspace if their demands are not met speedily. It is clear that these Nigerian workers had exercised patience and exhausted all constitutional means to come to a reasonable settlement of their grievances, but the government was not willing to co-operate. Hence, one cannot help but condemn with all the emphasis at one’s command, the uncompromising attitude of successive Nigerian governments in connection with the events leading to the industrial disputes.
Flowing from the above, it becomes expedient that we chant in unison the song first recorded in the early 1920s, believed to have originated with Southern Slaves and sung in Gullah, a creole language that was spoken by former slaves that inhabited North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. Though in recent times, our national walls have been shaken, as adversities of this season of harvest of strikes fail to demolish same due to our invictus spirit, the redemption song we intone in supplications for our fatherland to avert the destruction of our common heritage: Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya/Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya/Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya/Oh Lord, kumbaya!
- Ogunjobi, an attorney and public affairs analyst, writes in from Lagos.
and then