Owei Lakemfa is a former Acting General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress and former Secretary General of the Organisation of Africa Trade Union Unity. In this interview with MAYOWA SAMUEL, he explains why the alleged secretly proposed move by some governors to resurrect the bill which was aimed at removing labour and minimum wage from the Exclusive-Residual list to the Concurrent list, won’t see the light of the day. Excerpts:
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, recently kicked against secret plans to remove labour from the exclusive-legislative list to the concurrent list. What’s your thought on that?
The whole thing is about the minimum wage being on the exclusive list. Labour in Nigeria has been relatively quiet in the past few months. So, whenever they begin to rise, the political class feels threatened and starts looking for ways to curtail it. This is because labour is a formidable force that can call the political class to order, if necessary. In any given country, there must be basic standards in labour which is indivisible minimum. It does not mean you cannot get higher standards, depending on states or local governments; there must be an indivisible minimum which is why labour is on the exclusive list. Also for the minimum wage, there must be an indivisible minimum for the minimum wage around the country, so that those that can pay more can actually pay more. In other words, if the minimum wage is N30, 000 across the country, as approved by the National Assembly, and states like Lagos, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom can pay higher like N40, 000 or N50, 000, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t pay. Basically, labour in Nigeria is the same, they go to the same market, they are under the same economic policies, they are all under the same custom regime, under the same Value Added Tax, and a worker can live in any part of the country, so it’s common sense that there must be a minimum indivisible standard both for labour and minimum wage, otherwise, you will find out that there will be state governors or council chairmen that may want to pay peanuts, that may want to pay a worker N2,000 or N3,000 because there is large unemployment in the country and they see that Nigerians are desperate. Constitutionally, the Nigerian workers must be protected against exploiters. If you look at allowances of politicians, governors for instance, a governor of a state that produces little or nothing in terms of revenue or contributes very little to the financial situation of the country earns the same salaries and allowances as that of an oil producing state and has an IGR like Lagos. They have the same convoys, the same commissioners, the same special assistants and assistants to special assistants but it’s when it comes to their workers that they begin to talk about the need for differentials. What happened in the country is that things that have to do with labour are just minimum basics. Even the minimum wage for instance, is not a living wage. It’s not a wage on which a Nigerian can live on, it’s just a minimum wage that is enough for him to go to work and come back hopefully.
So, that’s the whole idea about labour being on the exclusive list. So, the fact that you have a federation does not mean you should not have minimum standards.
We’ve seen from time past that this minimum standard is not usually enough for the average worker…
You could say that but the minimum standards on labour were arrived at by all stakeholders including state governments, federal governments, employers of labour and trade unions, nothing is imposed. For instance, for you to arrive at a minimum wage, state governors agreed, federal government agreed, employers in the private sector agreed and labour agreed. So, you have that kind of consensus, therefore usually, it’s like the minimum acceptable or agreed to by the stakeholders.
Recall that bill had hit the brick wall in March 2021 after organised labour also kicked against it. This new plot is said to be orchestrated by some state governors who are mobilising to resurrect the bill through the back door. Do you think the motive behind this is selfish?
Look, if the average governor has his way, he will not want to pay salaries. Now, it is easier and more profitable to award contracts than to pay salaries because you are not likely to get any high percentage from workers’ salary, workers will demand the salary to be paid, whereas, if you award a contract, you can get a percentage cut. So, it’s usually not very lucrative to pay salaries and that is why some governors don’t even pay pensioners. It depends on power relations in the country. Even if you go under the ocean and enact a bill, if organised labour and its allies stand, they cannot implement it, apart from the fact that bills are supposed to pass through at least three readings with a public hearing. So, even if they go under the Atlantic Ocean and pass a bill, if the workers say no, they cannot implement it and they know that. Even if they do it secretly, they will still bring it back to the open.
“If the average governor has his way, he will not want to pay salaries. Now, it is easier and more profitable to award contracts than to pay salaries because you are not likely to get any high percentage from workers’ salary, workers will demand the salary to be paid, whereas, if you award a contract, you can get a percentage cut. So, it’s usually not very lucrative to pay salaries and that is why some governors don’t even pay pensioners”
The sponsor of the bill, Garba Datti Muhammed of the All Progressive Congress, Kano, said the bill was to allow state governments freely negotiate the minimum wage with their workers on what they could afford to pay, in line with our federalism and demand for the devolution of powers. Do you agree with this assertion?
His assertion is based on complete ignorance. He does not know how minimum wages are arrived at. He may just be going there to collect allowances. That’s why I told you that in determining what the minimum wage of the country is, the state governors, the federal government, the private sector and organised labour, sit down, negotiate for periods and reach a consensus. You will find that it is possible for the workers to be asking for N50, 000 and then you reduce it to N18, 000. For example, in 2010, from our calculations and market survey, when I was in the NLC, we came to the conclusion that the minimum wage necessary was N50,000 but when we negotiated with the state governments, federal government and private sector, it was reduced to N18,000. In any case, you find that there’s so much out of school children, especially in Kano and this kind of gentleman has not found sensible expedience to sponsor a bill that will make it compulsory for all children of school age to be in school. He has not found it necessary to compel the states and federal governments to engage in mass housing schemes, so that we can have affordable houses that are suitable for human beings, he’s not interested in that. He’s not interested in how to ensure that companies can run businesses in such a way that they will employ more people, so that we can reduce insecurity in the country. He’s just interested in what he does not know about. You might also find out that he’s just on an errand for some people.
During the doctors strike last year, Rivers State governor, Nyesome Wike, claimed he wasn’t owing medical workers in his state and so threatened to implement the “no work, no pay” rule on the striking resident doctors. They still joined in the strike since it was a general strike and this left Wike fuming. Don’t you think this bill was meant to address an instance like that?
It cannot. You see, the reason why workers have unions and associations like the NMA is to unite workers for common purposes, and it’s for the professionals, workers, labourers to be able to unite for common purposes. The second reason is for them to be able to show solidarity to each other. In the trade union movement, it is said that an injury to one is an injury to all. So, if Wike was paying doctors and other governors are not paying, the doctors in Rivers State have the duty to go on strike in solidarity with other doctors. Also, so that when Wike goes for their national executive meeting or whatever meetings they hold, he can pressurize his brother governors to pay because a doctor without salary is a dangerous person. A hungry doctor cannot be entrusted to carry out four, five hours of surgery, it’s not possible. So, it’s for the general good and well-being of the country. And for those who are big people, who think they can fly abroad, so they don’t need our doctors, something can happen and the first place they will take you to is the general hospital and they will meet such doctors there.
