• Home
• Columnist
• Videos
• Artist
  • Musicians
  • Actors
  • Comedians
• Notable Nigerians
• Legend Dies
• Articles
  • Nigeria Articles
• Photos
• Submit Article

Author: KOLA IBRAHIM
Posted to the web: 10/13/2006 12:18:58 PM

ON RETRENCHMENT: PUNCH YOU ARE WRONG My attention has been drawn to the recent anti-workers’ policy of retrenchment in public service. Various individuals and groups including the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) leadership have made a lot of positions. In fact, in the editorial of the Saturday Punch, 5th November 2005, it was given another treat. However, one is appalled by the inhuman reactions of some people and the incoherent argument of the NLC leadership as to the reasons why the workers must not be sacked. Let me first start with the position of some section of the media who believed that workers are the problems of the country. According to them, workers consume about 80% of the government funds and thus need to be pruned to allow for other capital projects to be done by the government. This they said would pay the workers because they also will enjoy from the resources provided by these projects, aside the emolument they will get from their disengagement from active service. This view to be is to say the least lack some veneer of intellectualism. One must ask the writer what his/her own concept of labour implies. To me, labour is a means of creating more wealth depending on who controls it. If it is the government, such labour serves the nation; if private firm uses it, it provides wealth for few individuals. While the writer want us to believe that majority of the workers are redundant, it fails to tell us how a worker will be redundant if it has all the facilities to work upon. We have been told that there are drivers that have no work in the civil service. But, these drivers that were employed more than ten to twenty years ago had cars to drive then, but now, despite the fact that economy has expanded, population has increased, these drivers are paradoxically asked to quit; when in actual fact more drivers are needed. And when you observe critically, you will find out that many cars – lorry for supply, ambulance for hospitals, etc, are needed to improve the economy, but such will and can not be purchased because “government must not concern itself with too much service”. This scenario is replicated in other sections of the economy that are even more critical than driving. They tell us, in a fantastic manner how workers will prosper if sacked and given his entitlement (if it ever exists). However, in this age of imperialism, it is funny that someone will still expect a labourer disengaged from service to compete with already established businessmen without crumbling. Yet fact emerging from our newspapers show us daily through various reports and researches how even big firms collapse in the face of rapidly failing infrastructures (many of whom government has claimed to have spent billions of naira upon), and low consumer patronage (thanks to neo-liberal policies of fuel price hike, retrenchment etc,). I hope the writer is not expecting the retrenched workers to invest in politics.What this points to is that workers are underutilized because government will not spend the public fund for public use. In a situation when you have enough engineers and technician in the works that are idle because the projects have been given to contractors who employ few in order to gain more profits. In the real sense, what the government is doing is to reduce the money spent on the masses so as to make more money available for looting either directly or otherwise. This is where the argument of the NLC comes in, or how can one justify the N33 million spent annually on a minister of finance that is asking us to tighten our belt for tomorrow. Her salary is enough to employ four workers for thirty years. This is aside other emoluments and services like free transport, allowances for oversea trips etc. At least we have heard of the N40 million bulletproof car for senate president. Yes, through duplication of office and compensation for campaign guys, many of her likes are produced – minister of state for finance, special adviser on economic planning, senior special adviser on poverty alleviation, special assistant on stock exchange, and yet you will still have permanent secretary. All these elements will also have political staff all of whom are on bogus salaries that can employ several workers. When you add the money spent by government to maintain these parasites, you find out that it is more than the salaries of employed workers in public service. On capital project, it is ironical that Punch that supply us with facts on how several billions are being wasted daily on ghost project, still want us to have illusion in government’s spending. At least we have heard of N100 billion Turn Around Maintenance fund, over N200 billion on road contract during Mr. Tony Anenih’s tenure, over N300 billion spent on power generation, over N30 billion ID Card scam while million have not had the card, Pentascope fraud, etc. These are few of the monies that have been misappropriated by government officials and their cronies many of whom are still at large. Are all these product of the workers’ redundancy? In fact, if workers have been adequately utilized with enough facilities to work upon, such money would have been more judiciously used.Despite huge money that have accrued to the country in the past five years running to over $60 billion, nothing tangible as been done to alleviate the suffering of the masses – job provision, massive funding of social services, establishment of capital industries, etc, yet government officials at all level continue to live in opulence. Just recently, over N300 billion was shared by all tiers of government but since then no improvement has come to the lives of the masses, and today, the federal government want to compensate its imperialist masters by coughing out over $12 billion under a kangaroo debt reduction arrangement when facts are emerging daily showing in actual fact, that Nigeria and indeed African continent have paid more than twice for the same debt. This is aside selling out of the countries hard-earned industries and corporations to these multinational corporations at take away prices, in the name of privatization when in actual fact these companies are looking for means to shortchange Nigeria via capital flight, retrenchment, etc.All these are ignored by the Punch editorial but rather paint the situation as if workers are the problems of the country’s economy. This is calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it. While one agrees with the argument of labour leadership on waste at the public office, but the issues are beyond this. Retrenchment in public service is just one of the attacks on the Nigerian working and toiling masses daily by the ruling capitalist governments at all levels. The retrenchment policy is one of the policies of the government as prescribed by the multi-lateral imperialist agencies – IMF/World Bank/WTO/G8, in order to further hand over the wealth of the nation – human and material to the multinational corporations. Other policies like privatization, commercialization, deregulation, trade liberalization, etc are all children of the neo-liberalism and neo-colonial capitalism which are meant to make the super-rich few to continue being rich at the expense of the working majority. This is graphically explained by the fact that just 1% of Nigerians control over 80% of the nation’s oil wealth while over 70% of Nigerians are wallowing in what the IMF called severe poverty. Yet, every year, Nigeria continue to experience huge trade imbalance and capital flight of over $10 billion thanks to the dominance of multinational corporations either directly or through their branches and middlemen in the country; and corrupt politicians.Therefore, the labour leadership must take the issue beyond waste at the public office but coherently and comprehensively by linking the opposition to retrenchment to other issues like privatization, commercialization, casualization, deregulation, etc, and making a practical political move to solve the problem via mobilization of the working masses for a continuous struggle to stop the government from this ruinous path. To permanently resolve the crisis, the labour must be ready to confront this decadent capitalist system and fight for a system where public resources will be used for public use via nationalization of the economy under democratic control of working and toiling people, where all public officers will earn worker’s salary and will be subject to public recall whenever they falter on public good. Practically, the labour must join forces with all other progressive organizations to form a working people’s political platform with socialism boldly written on its burner, that will wrestle power from these corrupt capitalist politicians and create an egalitarian, socialist society where people’s need will form the basis of production, distribution and governance. Without this, barbarism shall prevail. KOLA IBRAHIMObafemi Awolowo University,P.O. Box 1319, GPO, Enuwa, Ile-Ife. ibrolenin@yahoo.com