‘We will establish an NLC youth wing’
You are a leading contender for the position of NLC president; what plans are you bringing on board?I have a programme of actions that I want to put in place remembering the fact that in 1999 when the leadership of NLC emerged after a four year ban by Abacha, the crux of the agenda was […]
You are a leading contender for the position of NLC president; what plans are you bringing on board?
I have a programme of actions that I want to put in place remembering the fact that in 1999 when the leadership of NLC emerged after a four year ban by Abacha, the crux of the agenda was how to rebuild a new NLC coming out from the ban that affected our organisational structures, our finances and the capacity of the NLC then under a sole administrator to engage policies and programmes that were detrimental to the overall interest of Nigerian workers. The quest then was to build NLC into a fighting organisation that would earn the confidence of the worker and also that of the employer. That I think has sufficiently been achieved if you look at 1999 to date.
But new issues are emerging because the fact now is that with globalisation, even gains that were made in the past are gradually being eroded especially by neo liberal policies; outsourcing which is affecting membership of unions on a daily basis. Most government corporations are being privatised and the workforce is shrinking by the day which affects the socio-economic fabric of the country. Unemployment is increasing by the day and therefore, these are serious challenges that I think as a centre we must take up headlong. Therefore, our major policy will be to engage these neo-liberal policies that are imposed by IMF and World Bank so we can liberate our country.
How will you do that?
There is always an alternative to every policy. Most policies that are being churned out by IMF and World Bank, a lot of other countries have had alternatives and it is working for them. Therefore, my preoccupation is to engage every policy that we think is detrimental to Nigerian workers and the masses and also come up with alternative. This we will do vigorously because we will not allow the gains that we have made in the past to be eroded. Our founding fathers made a lot of sacrifices and therefore had made a lot of gains for Nigerian workers.
What other plans do you have for the NLC and by extension Nigerian workers and citizens?
Part of our agenda is also to strengthen the unions and also the state councils as well as all our state structures. We cannot continue to be the fighting organisation NLC is known for if our structures are weak. As it is today, the capacity of some of our unions because they have lost membership is going down. The capacity of our state councils is also going down. We have not been able to organise all the local government structures of NLC despite the fact that it is provided for in the constitution. Our first major task is to make sure that we galvanise all our structures, empower them both educationally in terms of capacity and also the quality of leadership that will emerge so that all of us will be on the same page and then we will have the capacity to fight those neo-liberal policies and also engage in meaningful dialogue with our employers because nothing good comes easy. Workers have to be on their feet to gain their freedom and also maintain whatever gain they have made in the past.
How will you relate with other critical stakeholders?
I think it is important we try to unite because no organisation fights a battle when its house is divided. One of my major agenda is to see how we can unite and also make sure that our allies in the civil society organisations, women organisations, the student union organisations, who are now mostly on their own because we have not been able to harness them, therefore the politicians have harnessed them to themselves. It is never heard of that student union organisations will go and support anti-workers or anti-people policies. It is a very serious issue and we will be able to put a platform and reach out to them through our programmes of action. National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has been an integral part of NLC if you even look at the military era. We fought a lot of battle with them because the university usually is our training ground where most activists emerge and that culture over the years has been eroded. These are some of the cultures that I think are very important that we revive, strengthen them and use them as tools of change.
What promises do you make to the Nigerian people?
A lot of the policies have had very negative effect on the psyche of Nigerians and you can see some level of despair and disillusion; a lot of people have lost hope. One of my agenda is also to bring hope to the people that it is possible for us to unite and face the challenges because whether you like it or not, NLC does not only represent the interest of Nigerian workers, it also represents the interests of masses. That is why when you go down history, most of our struggles, people bought into them because those policies have accommodated their concerns and their interests.
You said outsourcing and privatisation has affected membership strength of the NLC, how will you address the decline?
When you look at our economic setting now, the bulk of the un-unionised sector are entrepreneurs; people that are on their own, they employ five, six or ten people. At this moment, they are not unionised. We have an agenda of unionising the un-unionised, especially the entrepreneurs and make sure they are able to join the unions because I am not sure our membership is more than 12 million. We must make sure that membership drive is a continuous process because the strength of NLC is determined also by the number of membership it has. The success of any policy it is driving would also be determined by the membership strength that will be able to drive the process and how the general public key into it. There is a lot of room and opportunity for NLC to increase membership. It is a major task that I will achieve; organise the unorganised, unionise the un-unionised and make sure they form and belong to unions so that together we can drive those policies.
Some people may argue that the NLC in recent days has not been as fiery as it used to be. How will you revive that tradition?
My major focus will be to bring back the principle and ideology of our founding fathers i.e., standing in for the workers, the Nigerian public and defending their interests whatever it takes and gaining their confidence. Basically this will be the broad principle and we are going to have a lot of other factors to drive the process. A team of labour intellectuals are working on the details, how they would be achieved with timelines.
Is there a place for mentorship in your programme of action?
Yes, we are going to put a structure that will give youths a voice in the labour sector because whether we like it or not, there is the issue of aging which also affect our movement; the culture and the tradition that we are known for is gradually being eroded. Imagine the next 10 years, what would be the crop of labour leaders that will be in place? We have not built enough in terms of succession. We are going to establish a youth wing and it will be strengthened so that all these ideologies that our founding fathers are known for and most of the trainings they have received across the world will continue to live. Those opportunities are no longer there because most of them trained in the eastern bloc and in a lot of labour training institutes across the globe and it was free in those days. Those institutes no longer exist. We are going to build a labour college and all these our veterans, most of their exploits within the labour movement have not been documented, we are going to document them. They are going to be the main resource persons in the labour college and the labour institute where policy issues will be examined and we come up with informed decisions and positions that will guide our actions and inactions in order to effectively represent Nigerian workers.
How will you create greater unity amongst the unions?
One of the issues that also has been lacking is solidarity; if a union has a problem, in most cases, it is left on its own to sort it out. There has not been solidarity extended to unions. One major thing I am putting in place is the issue of solidarity in the sense that injury to one is injury to all. Any affiliate that has an issue with the employer, we will come in full force to support it, to give the union all the necessary assistance until the issue is sorted out. This is the hallmark of trade unionism and the essence of even the labour centre. Basically, we are going to make sure that those issues are addressed so that we are able to speak for Nigerian workers and able to speak for Nigerian masses.