President Muhammadu Buhari is fortunate a good
number of Nigerians are on his side regarding the
removal of the fuel subsidy
The Industrial Court ruled against the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) from
embarking on any strike
The discordant tune among the labour leaders has
made the strike action embarked upon on Wednesday,
May 18 unsuccessful in some parts of the country
Despite the ruling of the Industrial Court that the nation’s
labour unions should not go on strike on Wednesday, May
18, some members of the labour body still went ahead. The
question to ask first is why did the NLC embark on the
strike action? The plausible answer to this is that they
wanted to prove their mettle.

Currently, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is split into
two factions, namely the Comrade Ayuba Wabba led-faction
and the Comrade Joe Ajaero-led faction. While the former
faction wanted workers to down tool, the latter faction
washed its hand of anything like a strike action.

1. The January 1, 2012 strike action experience
Nigerians were highly moved to support the leadership of
the national presidents of the Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), when the
government of Dr Goodluck Jonathan removed fuel subsidy
on January 1, 2012. Nigerians came out in droves,
especially those who converged on Freedom park at Ojota,
Lagos state for more than five days.
Comrade Abdulwahid Omar, national president of the NLC
and Comrade Peter Esele, national president of the TUC got
the support of millions of Nigerians regarding the strike of
that period. However, the labour leaders led Nigerians to
the garden path, by backing out of the strike at the eleventh
hour, making all the sacrifices made by Nigerians to be an
exercise in futility.
The experience of that time is what has made some
Nigerians to passionately detest the labour unions in
Nigeria.

2. Factionalisation of the labour union
A house divided against itself will definitely not stand. In the
words of Comrade Ajaero on Tuesday, May 17 regarding
why the strike is totally not needed. He said there were
some ulterior motives from his co-faction members, calling
the pulling down of tools by workers as totally wrong.
Quoting the factional NLC national president verbatim, he
said:
“So, we will wait for our group to meet. But definitely, it
appears that by ideology and every other thing, we can no
longer meet. We thought we should have managed this in
the interest of Nigerians but from the look of things, it
appears we have to go our different ways.
“We have condemned the increase and called for
negotiation and reversal. It was on the basis of our calls
that this meeting was summoned for us to meet and find
the way forward.
“If we wanted to be serious about an action, you can’t call
for an action on Wednesday (May 18). It is only an action
that is sold out that is called for Wednesday so that by
Friday, you say you have strike lethargy and call it off.”

Due to this factionalisation, Nigerians see NLC as an
unserious labour body.

3. The romance between labour leaders and the
government
Most of members of the NLC are stooges of the
government. They are at the beck and call of political office
holders. They have sold their souls just for a pot of
porridge. Most of them no longer fight for the poor and
suffering masses. This is totally unacceptable. In advanced
countries of the world, there is no labour body which
supports the government on a policy which does not not
favour the citizens.
On the other hand, labour union members in Nigeria
support the government even when they know
government’s policy will bring hardship on the citizens.

4. Nigerians want to give the federal government a trial
The current administration is very fortunate to be in the
good books of majority of Nigerians. The government has
used this a lot to its advantage. Therefore, Nigerians want
to give the Buhari-led government more time. This is why
only a small percentage of the citizens want labour to
strike.
In addition, a good number of political analysts believe
President Buhari has the heart of a lion regarding his
passion to seeing Nigeria and Nigerians fare better in all
facets of human endeavours.

5. Fuel subsidy removal will no more be an excuse
All previous governments have hidden under the canopy of
fuel subsidy. The excuse of fuel scarcity is always said to be
because government is paying trillions to subside the petrol
Nigerians buy. Since, subsidy has now gone, Nigerians want
to see what will happen in a few days time regarding getting
pure motor spirit (PMS) with ease from filling stations.
Therefore, they see no reasons participating or supporting
any strike action.

Watchin in 3D

Well you try

How do these strike actions affect the common man, obviously the elite dont get affected so much in Nigeria.