LAGOS SPN CONDEMNS DEPORTATION OF POOR PEOPLE BY THE LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT

PRESS STATEMENT

Lagos State branch of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) condemns in strong terms the unlawful deportation of poor people, destitute and beggars to other parts of the country by the Babatunde Fashola/ACN/APC government in Lagos State. It is the height of insensitivity and crudity for a government to illegally arrest and detain poor people for months only to be dumped at other parts of the country at odd hours of the day.

The Lagos State Government in 2009 deported about 120 poor Yoruba people to Molete, Ibadan at wee hours and subsequently deported other hundreds of Nigerians of Northern extraction to the North. The latest is the deportation of 70 Ibos who were dumped them at Upper Uweka Bridge in Onitsha. In the same vein, over 2000 of poor nationals of other West African countries such as Senegalese, Malians, Nigeriens etc., were recently illegally arrested, detained and deported under the guise of fighting terrorism by the combined team of Police, Lagos State Task Force on Environmental Offences and Immigration. All this is not only anti-poor and callous but a violation of the fundamental human rights of the deported victims.  

The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Government on Youths and Special Development, Dr. Enitan Dolapo Badru said that 1,708 beggars and destitute had been expelled from Lagos to their various states and countries since January 2013.  “The end result”, Dr. Enitan stated “is to reunite them back with their families.” How would a responsible government claim to reunite these victims with their families by arresting and detaining them illegally for months and forcefully bundled out of Lagos and dumped in the middle of nowhere?

Joe Igbokwe, The Publicity Secretary, Lagos State chapter of the ACN has the temerity to insult these victims by describing them as people who have no business in Lagos and constitute nuisance. It is the anti-poor policies of Igbokwe’s paymasters that have created the condition for destitution and poverty that made it possible for few people to be stupendously rich in the midst of abundance. Besides, Igbokwe has business in Lagos because he is feeding fat from tax-payers money for praise-singing the Alausa rulers and exploiters.

     

However, it is not all the victims of this act of illegality that are beggars. For instance, according to Guardian of 28^th of July, one of the victims of this mindless attack, Mr. Osondu Mbuto, from Ohaozara in Ebonyi State is a petty trader in Lagos. He told the news reporters that he was arrested on December 18, 2012 by Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) officials for alleged wandering, detained at Ikorodu and finally dumped at about 3am at Onitsha after being escorted by armed anti-riot policemen. In detaining them illegally for several months under dehumanizing condition before dumping them in other states, the Lagos government traumatizes their victims as a warning not to come back to Lagos. This action violates section 41 of the 1999 Constitution wherein every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part.

Lagos under the Fashola /ACN/APC government has become one big prison where the rights of the poor are on a daily basis being trampled upon. Those who are very rich irrespective the part of the world they come from are respected and treated as first class citizens while the poor are daily harassed by the state government. This aside the very crude and undemocratic judicial system wherein poor people who are arrested are subjected to Kangaroo court trial without legal representation or even time to prepare their defense in violation of Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution. The same ACN which pretends to be progressives is enmeshed in absurdity and tyranny not different from what obtains in the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

 

A responsible government would have invested in rehabilitation and training or retraining of these destitute and poor people in order to make them productive and thereby be beneficial to the society at large. We hold that the ACN/APC government is irresponsible and anti-poor that is why it does not mind wasting the tax payers’ money to hurl poor people from the streets of Lagos and dump them in other states. Fashola government and ACN continue to wallow in the world of illusion and fantasy that things are working well only when there are no destitute and beggars on major streets. How can a country or a state be developed without taking the poor out of poverty? Fashola wants people to believe that Lagos is working amidst growing poverty and neglect of many communities.

  

The SPN hereby demand that the Lagos State Government must stop this brutal attack on the poor and tender apology and pay adequate compensation to the victims of its act of illegality. We call on trade unions and pro-working people organizations to condemn all anti-poor policies and conducts of Lagos state government and organise activities to resist them.

Chinedu Bosah

Lagos State Protem Chairperson     

SPN Condemns the Proposed Removal of Minimum Wage from Exclusive List

Senate Action is a Wake-up Call on the NLC and TUC to fight more Resolutely to Defend Workers Living Standards

* NLC and TUC Must Call an Immediate 48-hour General Strike/Mass Protest Now!

The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) condemns in absolute terms the anti-poor decision by the Nigerian Senate to remove minimum wage from the Exclusive List of the Constitution. This action of the Senate portends the danger of undermining workers collective bargaining for minimum wage raise in future.

Particularly coming on the heels of the blatant refusal of several state governments to fully implement the N18,000 minimum wage law over two years after it was enacted, the decision of the Senate to remove minimum wage from the Exclusive list is vexatious and must be vehemently resisted by the entire labour movement. In this wise, the SPN calls on the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to start immediate mobilization for a 48 hour general strike and mass protests to oppose this anti-worker decision of the Senate and also to begin to fight for the full implementation of the N18, 000 minimum wage at all levels.

This action of the Senate is a wake-up call on the labour leadership to be combative and fight resolutely to defend workers living standards. In our view as a working class political party, this vexatious assault on workers wage is only possible because of labour's rather weak response when the state governments bunched together two years ago to resist the implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage law. For instance, in some states where some semblance or pretense of implementation including states controlled by the Action Congress of Nigeria (now All Progressive Congress), workers were heavily shortchanged while the labour leaders looked the other way. Even where workers fought hard, they were left to fight alone without complementary solidarity actions from the national leadership of the NLC and TUC. At the same time, the labour leadership made no serious effort whatsoever to ensure that private sector workers benefitted from the N18,000 minimum wage in effect allowing the terrible labour conditions in the private sector like poverty wage and casualisation to continue unchallenged.

This is why we stressed the point in our last statement on the subject that while the leaderships of NLC and TUC have commendably opposed the plan to remove minimum wage from the Exclusive List, they have failed to sufficiently demonstrate to workers the benefit of having the 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. Indeed in some cases they gave the state governments go ahead to water down the minimum wage. For instance, the President of NLC Abdul Wahed Omar was reported to have revealed during a visit to Ekiti State in March that the labour leadership had had agreement with states with proven evidence of inability to pay N18,000 as minimum wage to negotiate with labour leaders in their domains on what to pay (This Day April 1, 2013). 

Therefore, the general strike and mass protest we are proposing should not just be used to oppose the removal of the minimum wage law from the exclusive list, it should also be used to renew the fight for the full implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage by the Federal and State governments as well as private employers of labour. This also means that all previous agreements between labour and some state governments over the implementation of the minimum wage law which has led to the shortchanging of workers have to be subjected to immediate review and strike notices issued to such state governments. The leadership of labour have to also especially and immediately move into all private companies refusing and/or reneging on implementing the N18,000 minimum wage law with strike notices and with programs and activities to mobilise the workers for mass protests. At the same time the lesson must be drawn that without a mobilization of labour in action there is no guarantee that legal reforms or improvements will be implemented.

Besides, with rising cost of living and collapse of infrastructures this attack on minimum wage will greatly worsen the already poor living condition of many workers. Inflation is currently standing at over 13 percent with consumer goods especially food inflating by as much as 50 percent. Just two weeks ago, the federal government increased electricity tariff by another 100 percent, while fees have been increased by as much as 500 percent in various tertiary institutions in the past three years. These are aside other anti-poor capitalist policies that have made and are making lives miserable for the people.

Therefore, the proposed general strike must also draw along all others demands of the working people such as reversal of the obnoxious hike in electricity tariff and privatization; hike in school fees and underfunding of education; among others. With this, the whole of the working and poor masses can be carried along, and mobilized to the struggle. We advocate for formation of struggle committees of workers, youths, students, community people to coordinate this strike and protests. 

By this latest action, the Senate has further confirmed the anti-poor and pro-rich character of the elements in government both at legislative and executive arms. The Senate, with connivance of state government and private sector employers, is making workers vulnerable to various state governments without social cover for the least paid workers, or regular increase of workers' wages based on general national economic indices. What this will mean is that minimum wage or wage increase is now voluntary for state governments and private employers of labour. This is worrisome development given the rabid quest of most state governments and private employers to drive down workers' wages as a way of having more money, not to develop the economy or infrastructures. Already, many state governments have not implemented minimum wage, especially for local government workers and teachers, while those that claimed to have implemented it have actually bastardized the minimum wage legislation. In fact, it took heroic struggles of workers or threat of it for many state governments to even agree to any minimal increase. Most private employers too have not implemented the minimum wage law. Therefore this latest onslaught is the institutionalization of this attack on minimum wage. 

The fraudulent argument of federalism being touted as an excuse for this latest attack on workers is not only backward but treacherous. The same argument of federalism has not applied to salaries and allowances of public officers. According to official data, just 17, 474 politicians collect over N1.1 trillion as salaries, allowances and other perks of office out of total national budgets of around N9 trillion (including state and local governments), while the least paid worker is officially expected to live on a meager N18, 000 a month. It is ridiculous and more condemnable that the same day the Senate removed the minimum wage from the exclusive list, it voted for a life pension for its own members. Already, Nigerian senators individually collect pay that is more than annual salary of a US President. This is high level of insensitivity. However, we have to quickly warn the state governors to hold their shout of hurrah as this brutal attack on workers can never prevent or intimidate the workers from fighting for improvement in their working and living conditions including a living wage. 

Above all, the central aim of this action of the Senate is to guarantee the interests of the anti-poor State governments and private employers of labour. The former can only have more money to loot and the latter more profit to make by paying less than the real value of workers labour. This singular action of the Senate confirms the brutal and exploitative logic of capitalist economy and makes a strong case for a socialist alternative which is the goal the SPN is committed to. We firmly believe that Nigeria has enormous wealth to pay not only a living wage to every worker but also make every Nigerian happy. It is the greedy interests of capitalist class in Nigeria that is making this unachievable. This is why labour must direct its opposition and anger against the capitalist system that breeds inequality and want by building a genuine mass working people's political party through which the long-suffering workers and masses of Nigeria can fight for political power and socialist alternative to capitalism. 

Segun Sango

Protem National Chairperson

Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN)

STRIKES IN EDUCATION SECTOR

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