A Nigerian lawmaker, Senator Adams Oshomhole says organized labour must focus more on attaining the welfare of workers at various levels of government instead of individuals.
He made the call in Abuja on Tuesday, in an interview with State House Correspondents, after he paid a courtesy visit to the nation’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima.
Reacting to the decision of labour unions in the country to declare an indefinite nationwide strike with effect from midnight of Tuesday November 14, Oshiomhole said priority should be given to addressing the plight of public servants who are yet to start enjoying the N30, 000 minimum wage.
He said: “As a worker in the Senate, I don’t pretend over the fact that my first constituency, my permanent constituency, is labour. I can be removed as Chairman of APC as I was removed. But I couldn’t have been removed as a labourer. I remain labour in heart and labour in views, and labour in my aspirations.
“I will expect that even as we speak now that the issues that will appeal to me will be the fact that as we speak, we have states that are not paying N30, 000. And those states are not being mobilized to go on strike.
“The federal government has granted N35,000 increase. And those discussions were supposed to be for and on behalf of not only the federal government, but on behalf of all workers in Nigeria, including those employed by local governments and state governments.
“Also to ensure that the additional revenue accruing from the withdrawal of subsidy trickles down to the state and to the local government. Now, I would have wished that somebody, the NLC would recognize that the hunger in the stomach of federal employees is not any worse than the hunger in the stomach of those state employees, nor local government employees.”
He emphasized that if the current declaration of strike was based on the issues he enumerated, he would have supported the organized labour’s move.
The Senator, who is a former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, therefore, enjoined labour unions in the country to desist from delving into politics and maintain neutrality.
“If these are the issues on the table, even as a Senator I will publicly support an action against any government that thinks that we should lament away our hunger and while the people do what they do.
“Unfortunately, this strike is not about those issues. And I think we have to be careful not to mix our political opinion with our responsibilities, because the issues confronting workers are so many that they should become the priority.
“Labour cannot be apolitical because politics is about the people. And I have argued when I was in NLC that nobody has a right to be partisan, much more than those who turn the wheel of our industrial progress.
“But in saying that, we must recognize that however hard you try, when it comes to politics, people are going to have different reasons for supporting different candidates. You have to be careful not to be seen to be doing the bidding of a particular candidate or a particular political party.
“As President of the NLC, I made no friends with any politicians in Edo State. I am not anybody’s boy. I want to make my decisions. I take responsibility for those decisions. You can’t find me in the house of a politician. Not because I hate them. I represent those guys who can only vote. So, I have to prioritize what is it that I’m ready to die for and what is it that I’m ready to accommodate,” he said.
Oshiomhole however clarified that he was not in support of brutality against any individual or group.
“But let me be clear. I do not support the brutalization of any Nigerian. I emphasize, any Nigerian, including a Journalist, including the unemployed; of course, including Labour Leaders.
“But I’m saying in terms of what you might call the hierarchy of needs and challenges that we face, I think that NLC should robustly engage all the State Governors or the state governments, who are not implementing the agreement that was midwifed courtesy of a national strike, not a federal government’s employees strike.
“So if you mobilize private sector workers, state employees workers, local government workers, and now there is an agreement on N35, 000 across the board, I want to see NLC saying there will be no sleep in any state where this is not being implemented. That is all I can say,” Oshiomhole stated.
