Strikes, service delivery and vision 20:2020

Some of the strikes began three months ago, but while some are being resolved, others are still lingering with no sign of resolution in sight while the striking workers have dug deep in their trenches. As if these industrial actions have not inflicted enough pain and headache on the national economy, other workers’ unions have […]

Some of the strikes began three months ago, but while some are being resolved, others are still lingering with no sign of resolution in sight while the striking workers have dug deep in their trenches.

As if these industrial actions have not inflicted enough pain and headache on the national economy, other workers’ unions have issued strike threats and are reportedly prepared to down tools at the expiration of their ultimatum.

Among workers on strike are members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

The dons are asking for, among other demands, an increase in salary, an upward review of retirement age from 60 years to 70 years, as well improved facilities for effective learning in the ivory towers.

Also on strike are workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, who are seeking better wages, a review of the restructuring of the power sector and better working equipment.

Recently too, workers in government-owned media houses and some parastatal agencies embarked on a strike to back their demand for the payment of arrears of their monetised fringe benefits.

The Federal Government had begun the payments in 2003, but delayed the implementation of the entitlements to the parastatal agencies to 2005. After trying in vain to convince the government to pay the arrears in the past four years, the workers decided to stop work from July 7.

The Nigeria Union of Teachers is also poised to resume a strike its members suspended months ago in the effort to force reneging state governments to implement the Teachers Salary Scale introduced last year. Steel sector workers also took to the streets in Abuja last week to protest the non-payment of their salaries, while health workers are at home in protest against the non-payment of some benefits.

Faced with the gloomy labour situation, experts say that the trend  is likely to worsen the poor service delivery in the country.

But even more important, they say, is the tendency for such strikes to frustrate the implementation of President Umaru Yar’adua’s Seven-Point Agenda and truncate efforts to attain the goals of Vision 20:2020. Under that vision, the administration hopes to place Nigeria among the world’s top 20 economies by the year 2020.

Analysts say the plethora of industrial actions rocking the nation, particularly in the education and health sectors, is frightening, with many Nigerians travelling to “smaller’’ countries such as Ghana to seek medical attention and university education.

Observers also worry about the spate of strikes and their effects on the economy, as they note that service delivery, unreliable especially in the power sector, will be worsened by the strikes. “Factors like these may make it impossible for Nigeria to attain its potential and there is no way we can be among the top 20 economies if we cannot maximise such potential,’’ says Mr Adebisi Adetiba, a policy analyst.

He says the Nigerian story is that of a country whose public and private institutions held a lot of promise at independence in 1960, but regrets that such hopes are fading away. “We have witnessed a gradual but steady decline in the living standards of Nigerians over the years,’’ he says. Economic statistics, indeed, support Adetiba’s claims. In 1990, for instance, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 8.2 per cent; but in the past 10 years, the GDP has continued to hover around 3.5 per cent.

Experts, while assessing the situation, blame the steady decline on the declining oil prices and the current global economic crisis. But more critical analysts say the rising incidence of industrial disputes will further deepen the poor economic situation with its attendant drawback on economic growth needed to stimulate the attainment of Vision 20:2020. To minimise strikes and civil protest, Alhaji Hamman Gidado, the President of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, says the government must take labour unions into confidence and involve them in policy formulation and implementation.

“When government wants to increase fuel prices or remove subsidy on fuel or fertiliser, for instance, the labour should be involved. That way, the workers will appreciate the problems the government also faces,’’ he says.

Gidado says that it is such failure to dialogue with the workers that usually makes them to feel that they are being taken for granted. Mr Suleiman Haruna, an official of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Technical and Recreation Employees, agrees with Gidado.

He says the recent strike by workers in the Federal Government-owned media organisations would have been averted if the government had met their demand promptly by implementing the agreement reached with the workers. To keep workers permanently at their duty posts, Haruna says the government must recognise labour as an equal stakeholder in the ownership, administration and success of the organisations where they work. With the resolve to re-brand Nigeria, especially toward attaining Vision 20:2020, analysts say the government must rededicate itself to meeting the needs of its workers so as to fully mobilise them for effecient service delivery. Echoing Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi, Haruna says that human beings cannot survive when they are denied the basics of life. “It is such desperation for survival that drives people into strikes, bribe taking and kidnappings,’’ he says.

He says, for instance, that a civil servant who receives the national minimum wage of “just’’ N7,500, will be corrupt once he has the opportunity to do so. But experts wonder why Nigerian workers usually see the strike option as attractive. Mr Sylvester Achimugu, a university teacher, has one answer.

“Politicians who hardly do much receive huge salaries and benefits. A local government councillor, for instance, receives more than double the emolument of a university professor. “Honestly, that shows that we have our values upside down.’’ Experts say that it was, perhaps, in reaction to such feelings that the government recently ordered a reduction in the salaries and allowances of certain public office holders. But to minimise strikes, experts say that there should be continued dialogue between employers and employees and not only when there are crises.

The experts also call for constant workshops and training aimed at educating workers on government policies and the focus of the public service.  (NANFeatures)