Deep Thoughts with Othman

After the NLC presidency of Comrade Hassan Somonu over two decades ago, I stopped taking threats of NLC seriously as the union always failed to actualise its threats at the last minute. Either the union leadership was selling out or chicken out because of the “behind scene” shenanigan, palm greasing, and one-sided negotiation.

In the end, members, the Nigerian workers were being made to pay dearly for the ineptitude of their union leadership. For example, the brouhaha of N30,000 minimum wage, two years after the union negotiation with the government, many workers are yet to enjoy and have no idea when they will enjoy it.

Since then, prices of all essential commodities have skyrocketed to high heaven. We have lost counts on how many times fuel prices, electricity tariffs, rents, school fees, etc were all adjusted upwards without recourse to the consequences. Sometimes, we wonder if we really have a national union of workers as those in government do as they like. So, when NLC threw a threat of grounding Kaduna state, I thought it was the usual bark of a toothless bulldog waking up from slumber. For the first time, NLC is actualising its threat albeit too late, beyond bounds, and achieved the opposite results. Has NLC toddled off the right path?

Two months ago, this column wrote lavishly on the political shrewdness of Governor El-Rufai and his unstoppable stride to transform the state to an enviable position after several decades of decay. As stated in the article, El-Rufai is not a “roadside politician”, neither a political pushover.

He is bold, courageous, and dexterously accomplishes his political agenda not minding the consequences. I cautioned that El-Rufai’s zealousness in making history must be adorned with milk of human kindness. Developments are made for the people, not either way. What is the use of development when the people who should enjoy such development are not there; either dead or incapacitated? El-Rufai is being hailed as a fearless and merciless leader, bold enough to face any consequences.

However, these qualities are not a virtue for excellent leadership. While a good leader may be fearless but must be merciful and think deeply about the repercussion of his action and statement. For instance, El-Rufai’s stance of non-negotiable with bandits may be commendable but making such a view public has serious security implications. Some of his actions and statements since becoming the governor of Kaduna state in 2015 left much to be desired.

Some of the accusations NLC labelled against El-Rifai’s government are a sack of 21,770 primary school teachers in 2017, the recent sack of 7,310 local government employees, 1,700 primary healthcare board workers, and pencilling of 11,000 civil servants for disengagement. Some of the sacked workers are yet to be paid their entitlements years after their disengagements. Why is the government of El-Rufai trying to sack workers after over 20,000 workers sacked in 2017?

The government’s reason for rightsizing the civil service is to reduce personnel cost as it claims to expend more than 90% of the state statutory allocation on payment of salary monthly. In April 2021, the state government released details of its monthly statutory allocation in the six months leading to March 2021. The figures showed that personnel costs accounted for between 84.97% and 96.63% of the state’s allocation.

For instance, in November 2020, KDSG had only N162.9m left after paying salaries. That month, Kaduna State got N4.83bn and paid N4.66bn as wages while in March 2021, the state had only N321m left after settling personnel costs. The government’s effort to sack the civil servants and union resistance against the government was the reason behind the fight between the two giants; NLC and El-Rufai.

Last week, El-Rufai and NLC were on each other’s throats like a fight of the two elephants, which damages the grass and the entire environment. Their 3-day bloody fight produced colossal collateral damages, which inflicted indescribable hardship on the people living in the state including passersby. People suffered a lack of electricity, water, fuel, health services, banking services, and other essential services.

Among the first victims of the fight was a 2-old-day baby placed in an incubator, in which the striking nurses mercilessly disconnected the oxygen supply. El-Rufai was furious and ordered the immediate sacking of all nurses from grade level 14 downward and prosecuting of the three nurses involved for attempted murder.

The sacking of nurses will certainly exacerbate the epileptic nature of the health sector in the state. In any case, Nigerians have lost confidence in the services of the health sector long ago, in fact, Nigerian leaders from the presidency to local government council have a habit of jetting out to foreign hospitals for a mere headache or routine checkup.

Within three days of the NLC strike, the situation degenerated into street scuffles between NLC members and alleged sponsored of anti-NLC protesters. The state government declared Ayuba Wabba, NLC President & others wanted with a handsome reward to anybody leading to their arrest.

The charges against them were economic sabotage and attacks on public infrastructure under the Miscellaneous Offences Act. Federal government intervention led to the suspension of the strike to allow the two parties to negotiate for a peaceful settlement. The two parties must sheathe their swords and give deep thoughts to their actions for an amicable solution.

The sacking of about 7,000 workers would have a multiplying effect of devastating the livelihoods of over 50,000 people in the state as every worker has a chain of direct and indirect dependents. It is inhuman to scuttle the means of livelihood for these thousands of people as it will exacerbate the already deteriorated insecurity situation in the state.

On the other hand, the NLC action that grounded the economic activities of the state heavily impacted the helpless people, which the labour claims to be fighting for. Imagine the feeling of the mother whose 2-day-old baby was under intensive care when nurses disconnected the oxygen supply, the only means of survival for the baby in the name of strike action. What a merciless labour union.

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