By: Aigbokhaleode K. Asimiafele, a retired
Deputy Director of the Nigeria Council of Arts and Culture. He has authored
several books, which includes a book entitled “The Nigeria Book of Names and
Meanings.”
Let me begin by thanking our constantly courageous men and
women of Nigeria, for their determination of living and surviving in the sun or
rain over the years during tough military regimes and civilian administrations
till date.
Our honest call for change should start from our trade
unions because Nigeria Trade Unions and their leaders have failed workers. I
love the spirit of comradeship, but not as it is currently being handled in our
country. I support Leo Trasiky’s philosophy of socialism, which this article
anchors on. Many Nigerian comrades never study anything but wear the garments
of comrades just to bamboozle others and exploit the message of defending
workers.
All Nigerian Trade Unions have failed themselves and their
workers in the struggle for their rights. The principle of workers union and
comradeship is brotherhood in joy and sorrows as it were and should be, but no
longer exist in reality for years. When
a worker saves part of his salary, he is saving for the rainy days. In our
situation, this is not the case. Why should a worker not be paid salary for
three months or more, with no hope, and their unions close eyes to the pains
and sorrows of their members?
A Nigerian worker who starts work and becomes a union member
pays his check off dues for thirty five years. What happens to the check off
dues at his exit from service? One can see the injustices the so called trade
unions impose on their members. If ten thousand workers pay check off dues of
one naira monthly, how many millions will it amount to? Seventy per cent of
such money is supposed to be saved while about twenty per cent will be used for
the running cost of the union.
This is the ideal thing to do; but in Nigeria, trade unions
are the most ignorant about trade union matter as Nigerians remain the most
under paid workers on earth. According to Thomas Payn, “a poorly paid job is a
poorly performed job”. European nations pay living wage as opposed to what obtains
in Nigeria.
Check off dues is not money that unions’ leaders should be
sitting in the comfort of their offices and expend on Annual General Meetings, annual
executive elections, buy cars, build big houses and keep fat banks accounts for
themselves. There is a slogan that says “change
starts or begins with me,” but as a matter of fact and urgency, change should
start with the executive members of trade unions in Nigeria; otherwise, they
are fooling themselves.
As check off dues are savings for rainy day, it is essential
to go down memory lane and audit the accounts of all trade unions from 1980
till date, and bring all the guilty executive members to book, to save our
nation from such mass exploiters acting as union officials. Inspite of the International
Labour Organisation act of “no work no pay,” the union still hold on to the
rule of strike and come back to demand for salaries of members from employers,
yet they have not been held accountable for members check off dues for decades.
Perhaps, many labour leaders have forgotten the tenet of
their philosophy of comradeship that forbids a fellow comrade to be in pains,
or suffer injustice or penury while you are quiet. Many labour union officials
now act like many Nigerian politicians who sell their souls and minds to
injustice, by compromising the interests of their members to the management of
many organizations, by allow their member to be sacked or dismissed from
service most times, without taking any drastic action.
A painful phenomenon now is the unpaid salaries of workers
for months and years, while unions’ officials do nothing meaningful to make the
employers pay. They eat, pay for medication, their children go to school,
afford medication and so on and so forth.
However, check off dues enables union officials to immediately
place workers on half salary to take care of their families. If it is not in
the mandate of the trade union act, it is sinful to allow it to continue as it
is harmful to justice and fairness.
In Britain, in the days of Prime Minister Margret Thatcher,
when coal miners were on strike, their union placed them on half salary.
Please, do not get me wrong, because, if Nigerian trade/labour unions leaders
are not corrupt, they should have invested the billons that accrues from workers
annual dues and ensure that when workers retire and exit from the union, they
should be given not only a hand shake but cheque from their check off dues. This
brings about some salient questions such as; who owns the check off dues? Where
is the investment? Where is the profit for the owners of the check off dues? Who
is fooling who?
It would be nice if all the labour unions could cross check
their usefulness to Nigerian workers. They should start paying the unpaid
workers for months to enable their children feed, go to school, pay children’s
school fees and medical bills, etc. I think it is honourable to do this to
alleviate the suffering of workers and their children. Of course, if they fail
to do so henceforth, it is necessary to start auditing the various books of
trade unions from 1980 till date, if we must seriously uphold the slogan, “change
begins with me.” It is time for our unions to lead with good example. The Nigerian
government should make an announcement by deregistering them to make all trade unions
subject their books and accounts for proper auditing. If not, workers should
ignore the check off dues until they are told what benefit accrues to them as
part of their age long savings.
In conclusion, all Nigerian trade unions should start taking
care of their members, and stop the constant calling of the common man and woman
for strike, instead of playing to the gallery by marching with them on the street
with stress. We must start telling ourselves the truth and do the right things
to enable us to template our change positively, by living a life of good
comrades.
