MSA Call on Nigerian Workers to Demand A New Minimum Wage Now!

SOLIDARITY MAYDAY PUBLIC STATEMENT

It is another Mayday, and there can be no better time to examine the state and fortunes of the labour movement, especially in a year that precedes the 2023 general elections. If anything, the Buhari regime entering the last year of its tenure has done nothing to improve the lots of the working masses. If anything, it has left the worst off than it meant for them when it came into power in 2015.

All through the working masses displayed their heroic willingness to struggle against all of the policies of the regime that seeks to further condemn them to penury the more. Nearly all sectors of the economy, workers have gone on strike to demand improvement in their working conditions.

Workers in the educational sector and the health sector, demand a check on the collapsing infrastructure. But alas to no avail, the ruling elites as exampled by the President himself are comfortable with flying abroad for their medical needs as opposed to spending the resources of the country to improve healthcare, which the working masses can benefit from.

The same applies to education, with all of the staff unions in the public universities e.g ASUU, NASU and SSANU are on strike, with the government not even taking any step to meet the demands. The general elections leave the Buhari regime with no other choice than to be considerate and not fully move in with its action plan of full-scale commercialization and privatization of education in the country or even proscribe the unions.

And as long as the Buhari regime and the ruling class in the country refuse to see the fault in capitalism and continue with cutting off any role and responsibility for the state, with the wealth and resources legally endorsed to be accumulated as private capital as opposed to employing them to develop the means of production and meeting the needs of the population, so long will the working masses continue to wallow in poverty.

LABOUR LEADERS 

It is the labour bureaucracy and union leadership that has turned very disappointing in the whole scenario. Even with pressure from below, it is leaving it with no choice but to call an action as it did in September 2020, which the Wabba led NLC calls off the strike in “every state of the federation and Federal Capital Territory” national protest against another increase in petroleum products in January.

Claiming a victory that didn’t last for a week as marketers through hoarding and shortage of supply, shut the pump price up to as much as N250 a litre. And as we write, even the fuel stations sold between N190-N200, with others adjusting their meters to short change customers.

How is it that the labour leaders are not learning any lessons even from their own experience? The words of the Buhari regime count for nothing. It makes promises only to save its face and in the end, it would never keep or adhere to them. On the other hand, the labour bureaucrats are cut off from the rank and file members of the unions. They live in a different world with all of the wealth and finances of the unions at their disposal.

This is why there is the need to pose the challenge to reclaim the unions back as fighting organs of struggle, which the working class can use to contend with the ruling class to improve their lot.

The need for political education in the unions, is to bring more workers to the needed socialist consciousness and the task of the working class before them. Especially its role to end the stagnation of the country by providing leadership for all other oppressed classes in the country and the class struggle against the ruling elites in power.

A NEW MINIMUM WAGE

In the face of all the attacks on the working masses, privatization and deregulation of both the oil and gas sector including electricity in the country and its attendant affect all other sectors. The unprecedented rise in the cost of living, food commodities, rent, and transport are major concerns for millions of working-class families.

There can be no better time to call for a new minimum wage, above the old figure of N52, 200 as originally demanded the last time, before the Buhari regime signed into law an N30, 000 minimum wage for the country, which is even no longer realistic. Anything short of a double of that figure of N105, 200, will in the end amount to nothing. Even a double of the current wage to N60, 000 will simply disappear on approval. 

According to Picondi, (an international e-commerce platform) it “is no longer adequate” stating that food items for an adult alone will minimally gulp N40, 980. Still, the labour leaders are yet to see the need to call for a review three years after. Therefore, the MSA calls for the setting up of a committee by the unions to commence this task.

It is for workers to employ all the indices of the cost of living in order to put forward a demand for a new minimum wage and commence the agitation for it in the ranks of the workers with organise action. This approach will force the government to implement it. On the other hand, it will mount pressure on the labour leaders to break-free from their shell and organise workers.

INSECURITY

There is no better point of reference on the state of insecurity in the country than the attack by armed groups on the Abuja to Kaduna bound train, which resulted in the killing of 8 persons, and hundreds of passengers kidnapped. Painfully, Barrister Musa Lawal and Akin Akinsola, the General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Kwara State Chairman of the TUC respectively, lost their lives.

The Movement for A Socialist Alternatives (MSA) is saddened by this loss, and cannot but commiserates with the family and friends. But workers need no other evidence to conclude the fact of the failure of the Buhari regime. If now, those kidnapped have not been rescued. Family members are left on their own to pursue individual negotiations with terrorists for the freedom of those kidnapped.

This is more than enough to call for the resignation of the Buhari regime. However, this in the end will not resolve the contradictions. This is only if capitalism is challenged and knocked off the shelf. This is why the MSA uses the opportunity of the 2022 Mayday through its special edition call on workers not to trust the Buhari regime or any members of the ruling class as they all jostle among themselves to succeed Buhari come 2023.

This year MAYDAY cannot, therefore, be a mayday of a funfair, workers must come all out to express their displeasure against the Buhari regime and the whole the ruling class for its continued scorecard of failure at governance from regime to regime. More importantly, there is the need to arrive at the understanding that the bourgeoisie in Nigeria does not prioritize the interest or well-being of the working masses.

And that the way forward lies in the Working class, getting organized, breaking free from the grip of the bourgeoisie and all their political parties like the APC, PDP, APGA etc. This also means for workers to independently organise themselves politically, reclaim the Labour Party, and transform it into the party of the working people.

It is also to build a new fighting union with the millions of working people being their members. We cannot end this without calling on workers and youth all over to join the MSA and let us collectively continue our quest to mobilize and organize the working masses to transform the country into a planned socialist socialist.

SIGNED

Dagga Tolar

Secretary General

Movement for A Socialist Alternative (MSA-Nigeria)