Former National Vice Chairman North West of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman has called on the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to be constructive and dispassionate on their criticisms of government policies.
Lukman, who recently resigned from his position in the APC National Working Committee (NWC) alleged that the NLC did not address specific issues in the address of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the ways to cushion the economic hardship being experienced by Nigerians….CONTINUE READING
According to him, Organised Labour would do well and better should it not criticise the government policies like an opposition party or parties.
In his reaction to the NLC statement on the address of President Tinubu on Monday, titled: “Silver Bullet Politics and Challenges of Democracy,” he said the President should be commended for recognising the hardship being faced and addressing Nigerians on them.
He said, “Reacting to President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s National Broadcast of Monday, July 31, 2023, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), dismissed it arguing that it is ‘not the silver bullet Nigerians expected’.
“The silver bullet simply means that the national broadcast of President Asiwaju Tinubu failed to address the problems facing Nigerians. Given that the main issue, which the national broadcast of President Asiwaju Tinubu sought to address has to do with the hardship facing Nigerians occasioned by the withdrawal of petrol subsidy, beyond the issues contained in the national broadcast, what is NLC expecting?
“Among other reasons given by the NLC why the President’s speech wasn’t the silver bullet was that it ‘was completely silent on the repair of our national refineries.’ If the speech was silent on the repair of refineries, does that fall short of the expectations of Nigerians?
“While acknowledging that apart from the repair of refineries, the NLC identified other four issues as reasons why President Asiwaju Tinubu’s July 31 National Broadcast didn’t provide the solutions of the hardship Nigerians are facing, somehow, the NLC was more speaking like a political opposition to President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government. Being a political opposition to the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu, nothing in the proposals contained in the national address merit acceptance as a solution to Nigeria’s problems by the NLC.
“As far as the NLC is concerned, repairs of refineries, unmasking those behind the subsidy fraud, matching public promises with a commitment on the issue of minimum wage, increasing salaries of workers by the Federal Government, and promises of palliatives are the solutions to hardship facing Nigerians. Didn’t the July 31 national broadcast attempt to address these issues?
“Perhaps, not in the language expected by the NLC, certainly some of these issues are addressed either directly or indirectly. Going through the NLC’s statement signed by Comrade Joe Ajearo, President of the NLC, one is tempted to conclude that the main objective of their response was more to dismiss all the policy proposals contained in the President’s address as a justification of why the scheduled national protest being organized by the NLC will go ahead on August 2.
“The statement completely ignores all the proposals contained in President Asiwaju Tinubu’s broadcast. It is almost as if the NLC response was written even before the broadcast and therefore completely blind to all the proposals.
“Having served the NLC, and being conversant with the tradition of critically and dispassionately reviewing the government’s policy proposals, it was disappointing that the NLC reduced its responses to generalised commentary without reference to the specific issues contained in President Tinubu’s national broadcast.
“As Nigerians, we must appeal to NLC leadership to rise above the narrow sentiment of playing to the gallery based on some deceptively flimsy argument of a so-called silver bullet, if you like silver bullet politics, which is simply egocentric that inconsistent with the interest of Nigerians, including that of the working class.
“While acknowledging that there would be gaps in the proposals by the government and there would be challenges in terms of implementation especially when it comes to guaranteeing that broader interests of Nigerians are accommodated, swiftly dismissing them in the manner done by NLC is unacceptable and will not augur well for our democracy.
“The mere fact that President Asiwaju Tinubu finds it compelling to address the nation given the difficulties Nigerians are facing since the withdrawal of fuel subsidy is commendable. If anything, this confirms that President Asiwaju Tinubu is not in denial and aspires to ensure that his government is responsive.”
Commending the President in his address, he said, “We must admit that the decision to address the nation represents remarkable progress in the management of contentious public policy in the country.
“It is indeed required to give life to section 14 (2) (a and c) of the Nigerian constitution. In the past, such addresses and proposals contained are only made after protests and strikes. Coming before any strike or protest is important therefore, we encourage the government to take forward all the proposals contained in the address and use them to engage targeted organized groups in the country, including the NLC.
“For instance, the Federal Government should immediately meet with the Organised Private Sector to work out modalities for the implementation and disbursement of the proposed N75 billion aimed at strengthening the manufacturing sector ‘to increase its capacity to expand and create good-paying jobs.’
“The engagement should put in place the agreed conditions and framework for the selection of 75 enterprises to access the N1 billion credit. Part of the conditions should include the minimum number of workers to be employed by each of the beneficiary enterprises.
“Similarly, the government should also engage organizations of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises to set conditions and framework to access the N125 billion being set aside to energize the sector.
“Criteria for the selection of the 1 million nano businesses that would access the N50 billion Conditional Grant should be agreed upon. Also, the engagement with organisations of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises should establish the needed criteria for the selection of the 100,000 MSMEs that would access the start-ups’ Conditional Grant of N75 billion being proposed by the government.
The third category that the federal government should immediately engage is farmers and agricultural associations aimed at putting in place a clear framework for the disbursement of 225,000 metric Tonnes of fertilizers. Seedlings and other inputs. In addition, the federal government may wish to use the engagement with this group to explore strategies for achieving the cultivation of 500,000 hectares of farmland and all-year-round farming. Noting that the government has earmarked N200 billion from the N500 billion approved by National Assembly, it will be necessary to use the engagement with farmers and agricultural associations to negotiate both ownership and commitment to achieve success.”
Further admonishing the NLC, Lukman said, “All these issues were swiftly dismissed by NLC with the cheap claim of a silver bullet, which may reflect the knowledge gap in NLC.
“Leaders of NLC have historically demonstrated humility in engaging policy issues by opening and developing stronger networks with academic and knowledgeable constituencies.
“It is possible that NLC’s response to President Asiwaju Tinubu’s national broadcast did not seek to draw input from some of the traditional allies of the NLC.
“Had President Asiwaju Tinubu denied that the withdrawal subsidy has brought hardship to Nigerians and failed proposed measures to address them, the claim that the national broadcast wasn’t the silver bullet Nigerians expected would be justified.
“Were the proposals contained in President Asiwaju Tinubu sufficient to mitigate all the hardships Nigerians are facing? Maybe not. If not, one would expect the NLC to go a step further to highlight what will be required. Maybe the four issues emphasised in the response of the NLC are the proposed additional issues.
“These are: repairing our refineries, unmasking those behind the subsidy fraud, not matching public promises with a commitment on minimum wage, failure of Federal Government to increase salaries of workers, and promises of palliatives are empty.
“What are the details of all these and what actions are required to achieve them are not contained in the NLC’s statement. The challenge of giving practical expression to section 14 (2) (a and c) of the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended is about providing the much-needed leadership to change Nigerian politics.
“This is about the extent to which initiatives contained in the July 31 national broadcast reflect the diverse interests of Nigerians. To the extent that proposals highlighted in the national address cover the interests of workers, organised private sector, micro, small and medium enterprises, farmers and agricultural groups, transporters, etc., a wide spectrum of interests are already targeted.
“The crucial issue would be that of ensuring success in achieving expected results as well as allowing for additional scope to cover other interests of Nigerians not captured in the President’s broadcast.
“Now that the young government of President Asiwaju Tinubu is about to be fully constituted with ministers appointed, President Asiwaju Tinubu should consider giving all his ministers a clear mandate to ensure strong engagement with organised groups. In particular, engagement with NLC and other labour groups must target pre-empting strikes and protests in all sectors.
“In the context of that, as a democratic nation, we must begin to set benchmarks of allowable limits for all strikes in all sectors. Minister of Labour and by extension ministers in all sectors who fail to operate within such benchmarks must be shown the way out. This is more to ensure that government services in all sectors accommodate the diverse interests of citizens in those sectors….CONTINUE READING
