We’ll vote candidate, party that subscribe to our charter of demands — NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has reiterated its commitment to participate in the 2023 general election, firmly stating that it will only vote for candidates and parties that subscribe to its charter of demands.

Contained in its Easter message to Nigerians and signed by its President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, NLC said, “The bottom-line is that Nigerian workers are completely tired of cycles of broken promises that threaten to turn our hopes into nightmares. We remain committed to the hope of a great Nigeria.

“Nigerian workers have resolved to participate actively in politics. In contrast to the shameful reduction of the political discourse to mundane altercation on zoning formula amidst the burning national questions of insecurity, inflation and insolvency of the economy, Nigerian workers would engage the 2023 general election on issues premise. We have developed a workers’ Charter of Demands as our irreducible minimum standard. We will only vote candidates and parties that subscribe to our Charter of Demands.”

The statement further said, “This Easter, we ask government and private sector employers to meet workers halfway and put a glow to our hopes. We demand respect for Collective Bargaining Agreements signed with unions in our tertiary institutions and other sectors. States yet to fully implement the national minimum wage should do so immediately. We demand immediate clearing of pension arrears owed our retirees. Employers should deliver on prompt salary payment, periodic salary increment, promotion, regular training, access to social housing, affordable healthcare, paid vacation cum sick leave and compensation for injury at work.

“The recent mass killings in Plateau State, the terrorist assault on Kaduna Airport and the Abuja-Kaduna train bomb attack that killed innocent passengers including the Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress, Musa Lawal Ozigi, and Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, Kwara State, Comrade Akinsola Akinwunmi, and subsequent kidnapping of tens of passengers have come not only as a shocker to most Nigerians but also as an awakening to the reality of the expansion of the wings of evil on our shores. We demand that the government must ensure the swift and safe return of all abductees. We also demand compensation for all those killed and injured in the attack.

“Millions of Nigerian university students, especially those attending public citadels of higher learning are celebrating Easter outside the precincts of their campuses not by reason of choice but because our country cut short their hopes. The inability of the government to deliver on commitments it reached with our university workers both academic and non-academic has ensured that the streak of instability battering and buffeting our tertiary education system remains unresolved.

“It is even more tragic that the majority of the affected students are children from poor homes whose parents cannot afford to pay the outrageous fees charged by private universities. Tragically, while students from poor homes are held back by frustrating cycles of strike actions, the children of the rich and powerful are in private campuses learning. There is no sadder premiere of the social apartheid in our society than the intermittent and protracted strikes in our public universities.

“It is difficult to imagine that many workers in Nigeria are yet to enjoy the national minimum wage almost four years after being signed into law. Particularly culpable are Cross River, Taraba and Zamfara States. Nigerian pensioners are not spared as many of them are denied their gratuity and pension arrears.

“Tragically, while wages remain the same and sometimes are unpaid, the cost of living keeps skyrocketing. Inflation has eroded the purchasing power of workers as the Naira continues to lose its value. We must stress that all workers, including military, police, and paramilitary, deserve decent wages and pension.

“Of very great concern to us is the deteriorating energy crisis in our country. In the past few weeks, Nigeria has been plunged in a terrible ordeal of scarcity of refined petroleum products. The cost of diesel, aviation fuel and Premium Motor Spirit has generally soared to unprecedented heights. At a point, the airlines threatened to shut down operations even as the price of air tickets have been increased by more than 100 per cent.

“Owing to diesel scarcity and high cost, the few surviving industries in our country are being forced to either completely shut down or to significantly scale down their operations with grave implications for job security. This compounds the unemployment crisis in Nigeria. Most banks have been forced to reduce their working hours with dire consequences for national productivity and economic growth.

“The prevailing chaos in our energy sector is traceable to the embrace of neoliberal and anti-people policies by successive governments. The full deregulation of diesel, and aviation fuel has failed to deliver on its promises of abundant product supply and cheaper prices. Today, Nigerians pay far more for diesel, kerosene and aviation fuel and yet these products are hardly available. While the promoters of deregulation have suddenly lost their tongues, the burden of this grand failure has been transferred to Nigerian workers and the public,” he said.

“The same challenge in the downstream petroleum sub-sector manifests in our electricity subsector. Since the privatisation of the power generation and distribution assets in Nigeria, the promise of constant supply of electricity remains a mirage.

“In the past one month, Nigeria has experienced about four episodes of national electricity grid collapse. Before this time, public electricity supply had deteriorated to some of its lowest in our history. This is despite humongous tax payers’ money that the government invested as support funds for private investors that bought our public electricity assets. Yet, in the midst of these privatisation anomalies, Nigerian electricity consumers are still denied pre-paid meters and forced to pay highly inflated estimated billings. If this is not neo-colonisation of the Nigerian people, what then is?

“The Electric Power Sector Reform Act demands the review of the privatisation exercise every five years. The power sector reform has been on for more than five years, yet, there are no concrete plans to review the privatisation exercise. Congress reiterates the call for the scrapping of the Electric Power Sector privatisation programme given its monumental failure to make affordable and constant electric power available to power the potentials of Nigerians and their businesses.

“We also call for the total jettisoning of a deregulation policy that in the eyes of its cash-out promoters translates to wholesale importation of refined petroleum products which benefits only middlemen profiteers and their partners in the corridors of power. Nigeria can and should refine its crude oil to generate refined petroleum products including diesel which is one of the easiest to refine by-products of crude oil especially using modular refineries. Nigeria can make refined products constantly available to ordinary Nigerians at a very affordable cost.

“It is salutary that amidst these very challenging and depressing conditions, Nigerian workers continue to show faith in their country and demonstrate the never dying hope for a better tomorrow. This is the reason we still turn up at our duty posts despite being owed arrears of salaries. It is the urge of this hope that never dies that motivates us to keep contributing to the cause of nation building and wealth creation. The Congress salutes this indefatigable spirit of Nigerian workers. We urge our fellow workers to keep believing that a new Nigeria that is worker and people-friendly is possible in our lifetime,” Wabba said.