For 48-Hour Nationwide
General Strike and Mass Protests against Education Attacks and
Non-Implementation of Minimum Wage
The Socialist Party of Nigeria is compelled by the
fresh wave of strike actions by education workers’ unions (NUT, ASUP, SSANIP
and ASUU) to call on the leadership of the NLC and TUC to mobilize for a
48-hour general strike and mass protests in rallying a mass movement of
workers, students and youth to save Nigeria.
Two of the workers’ unions in polytechnics (ASUP and
SSANIP) have been on a two-month long strike action without any response from
the Federal Government. They are on the industrial action to over the
non-implementation of agreement reached with government since 2009 and to
protest the near collapse of polytechnic education. The Nigeria Union of
Teachers (NUT) since June 1 has been on a sit-at-home strike in the states
where the Teachers’ Peculiar Allowance (TPA) has not been implemented. While
the strike has been suspended in some states, it is still on in some others.
The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) told
the press that it has been forced by the non-compliance of government to the
2009 Agreement reached with the union to embark on indefinite strike action. The
central demands of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities, apart
from pay increase also boil down to the need to revamp university education in
Nigeria.
Also, the
Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) suspended a
three-day warning strike it had started to protest the anti-labour policies of
the oil multinationals operating in Nigeria.
The strike actions by the education workers’ unions on the parlous
state of education in the country places the burden on the leadership of the
two labour centres to come to the centre stage in the struggle to save
education from collapse in Nigeria.
Equally, students protesting against anti-poor
policies of the school management face police brutality which occasionally
results in death of students as in the case of Nassarawa State University and
University of Uyo.
The leadership of the labour movement must rise to
initiate the united mass movement of education workers, students and youth by
calling a full-blown 48-hour general strike with mass protests against attacks
on education and police brutality. In calling a 48 hour general strike, the
leadership of the labour movement would step up the pressure on government to
meet their demands as against the grave silence it has maintained to the
demands of the unions.
The SPN also calls on ASUU, SSANIP, ASUP and NUT not
to limit their strike actions to sit-at-home strike but build mass actions with
students fighting in solidarity in order to avoid defeat of the strike. This
would require organizing mass activities like public meetings, rallies and
protest marches side by side with mass circulation of leaflets to sensitize
students and various sections of the working people on the demands of their
strike actions and thereby mobilize their support.
The leadership of the labour movement must also
stoutly resist the planned exclusion of minimum wage from the Exclusive Legislative
List in the Nigerian Constitution. The entire ruling elite have continued to
betray their resolve to make it extremely difficult for working and poor
Nigerians to benefit anything from the huge wealth of the society. While the
majority of the state governors has failed to implement the meager N18,000
minimum wage signed into law, they have decided to come up with the push to
exclude the minimum wage from the Exclusive List! This will mean that each
state would be at liberty to determine what it wants to pay its own workers.
This is based on fraudulent argument of “true federalism” which is usually
canvassed, when the interest and welfare of workers is at stake, by the state
governors whose pays and allowances are not subject to the same “true
federalism” but unitarily determined by a Federal Government agency.
It is however
unfortunate that while the leaderships of NLC and TUC have commendably opposed
this move, they have failed to sufficiently demonstrate to workers the benefit
of having minimum wage under the Exclusive List. This is because despite
securing a national minimum wage, which is backed with an enabling law, the
labour leadership has not done anything serious, except lamentation or empty
threats, to force the state governors who have not implemented the new wage to
do so. Instead of organizing a general
strike workers are left to hang and dry at the whims and caprices of their
respective state governors. For the
struggle against the planned removal of minimum wage to make meaning the labour
should orgainse a general strike against non-implementation of the minimum
wage.
By and large, the two-day general strike, being
advocated, have to be with the clear demands on government to meet the demands
of striking education workers’ unions, against police brutality, opposition to
exclusion of minimum wage from the Exclusive List and implementation of the
N18,000 minimum wage across the states.
However, what the waves of strikes have shown in the
final analysis is the inability of the capitalist ruling elite to deploy the
wealth of the society for the benefit of the working people and the society as
a whole. This is why it is imperative to enthrone a working people political
and economic alternative. The trade union movement has to play a crucial role
in this regards with a formation of a mass working peoples party run on
socialist program. But the class collaborationist character of the current trade
union leadership has meant that for trade unions to achieve this historic role
there must be a fighting leadership subject to democratic control of workers.
As we campaign for mass workers party and workers democratically controlled,
fighting trade unions, we call on workers, youths and students to join the SPN
and help build it as an alternative for working people at 2015 elections.
Segun Sango
Protem National Chairperson
