Special Labour Day

FEWER speeches could be hollower than the ones that would be made nationwide to mark Workers’ Day, today. Speeches are traditional, their contents remain traditionally empty, especially during transitions, as we are witnessing. Millions of jobs have vanished with the turbulent economy, globally, but particularly in our economy that depends mainly on crude oil exports.

Workers’ agitations have moved from conditions of service to pleading for their pittance to be paid regularly, a vain hope in most private organisations. Governments are worse culprits. Unpaid workers’ remunerations, in some States run into months.

Hundreds of thousands of workers would gather at venues across Nigeria, to make fiery speeches about dearth of jobs, sing solidarity tunes, lament shrinking welfare of the employed, and preach the importance of labour. If governments remember the day, their officials would be around to placate labour, delve into routine statistics about job creation.  Everybody heads home, until next year’s speeches.

Things are getting worse. Government policies, poor security, and the ubiquitous challenges from electricity supply, lower Nigeria’s attraction to investors. The rise in unemployment, rated as high as 50 per cent, according to some statistics, is evidence of the impact of policies that emphasise the welfare of politicians and top government officials, over development of infrastructure that would enhance job creation.

Some who marched at last year’s rallies are now jobless. Unemployment statistics are worse for youth with thousands of university graduates jobless, some more than five years after graduation. More join the queue with every graduation ceremony.

Hardly is there a part of the country without a strike over workers’ welfare. A month hardly passes without a union or the other being on strike. Governments ignore strikes, for months. It does not matter whether they are by lecturers or doctors.

We have waited for three years for the 11 million jobs Minister of Trade and Investment Mr. Olusegun Aganga promised by 2012. His statistics came from the presumptuous calculation that each of Nigeria’s 11 million medium and small-scale industries would create at least a job each, immediately, we have 11 million jobs.

Nigerians know the jobs did not materialise even if the only explanation could be the discernible poor supply of electricity. Improvement in electricity and other infrastructure that could help in creating jobs appears distant. Instead of a review of progress made on the key issues that affected labour last year, today’s rallies would be grounds for more promises, lamentations, and possibly optimism since new governments are weeks away.

Strikes, agitations over unpaid salaries, the teeming crowd of the unemployed, and relations between unemployment and rising security issues, should make governments act quickly.

Promises have run their full course.