ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

By Prosper Olayiwola

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has slammed the stance of Vice President Kashim Shettima on the ongoing crisis between the Dangote Refinery and members of the Petroleum and Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

Joe Ajaero, President of the NLC, in a Tuesday statement on the occasion of “World Day for Decent Work Day,” described the Vice President’s statement as protecting the Refinery over the welfare of Nigerian workers.

“The serial violations of the ideals of decent work are a ticking time bomb. The NLC, in alliance with the entire working people of Nigeria, remains the vanguard of the resistance against capitalist exploitation and its quest to capture our governance institutions and pauperise the masses further. We will not surrender the rights of Nigerian workers on the altar of profit. We will mobilize, we will organize, and we will fight back. We insist that there are No Sacred Cows!”

The group said it stands solidly behind the Nigerian workers, warning the “ruling elites” to stop the assault on the poor masses.

On this World Day for Decent Work, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) stands in solidarity with the millions of Nigerian workers who toil daily under the yoke of exploitation and impunity. We use this occasion to sound a clarion call to the Nigerian state and the ruling elites, that the relentless assault on the pillars of Decent Work must end. It is in our collective interests to protect the tenets of Decent work.

“The Decent Work Agenda, as championed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), other UN agencies and global organisations, is not a mere proposition but a fundamental framework for a just and egalitarian society. It rests on four pillars: job creation, social protection, rights at work, and social dialogue.

“Today, in Nigeria, each of these pillars is being systematically undermined by the very tripartite partners, especially government and greedy Private Employers who have sworn to uphold them.
“Decent work is a critical foundation for sustainable national development. The pursuit of Decent Work is not a peripheral concern but the very bedrock of sustainable national development.

A nation that fails to guarantee fair incomes, safe workplaces, and the right to organize is a nation that actively sabotages its own productive capacity.
“Compliance with the Decent Work Agenda fuels economic growth by building a healthy, skilled, and motivated workforce, which in turn boosts productivity, stimulates consumer demand, and fosters social cohesion. Conversely, the suppression of workers’ rights and the proliferation of indecent work create a low-productivity, high-exploitation economy, perpetuating poverty and social unrest, which are antithetical to any meaningful development.

It is also true that systemic denial of Decent Work principles directly undermines our national quest for industrialization and economic diversification. No nation can achieve true economic sovereignty or technological advancement by repressing the very class that produces its wealth.

“Sustainable development is built on a foundation of social justice, where the fruits of labour are equitably shared, and workers have a genuine stake in the prosperity they create. To ignore this is to consign our nation to a perpetual state of underdevelopment, dependency, and internal strife, where the immense wealth generated by the many is siphoned off for the luxurious comfort of a privileged few.

“On this day that marks decent work day, we therefore consider the statement attributed to the Vice President of the federation as a national tragedy, as he presupposes that the Nigerian State promotes lawlessness. However, we doubt that the President of the federation will agree with him.

“We condemn in the strongest terms this deeply troubling statement by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, that the Dangote Group is a “national asset” and insinuating therefore, that it should be exempt from obeying the nation’s labour laws. This statement is not only an affront to the rule of law but a national tragedy. It is a public declaration that capital, when sufficiently concentrated, is above the law, that money is sovereign and can undermine Decent work principles.”

The PENGASSAN and the private refinery are at loggerheads over unresolved labour issues.
The union alleged that government’s support for the Refinery at the expense of workers was “greedy”.

“This dangerous pronouncement serves to green-light the mindless and greedy actions of the Dangote Group, which has brazenly violated the rights of its workers to freedom of association and right to join the trade union of their choice; a right guaranteed by our Constitution, the Trade Union Act, the Labour Act, and core ILO Conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory.

“The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) was simply fulfilling its historic duty to protect its members from exploitation. To frame this legitimate trade union activity as sabotage or a national threat is a fascistic tendency that the NLC utterly rejects and will resist with every fibre of its being. We declare that Dangote, with its illegal actions, is not a national asset but a “national tragedy”.

The group’s actions undermine the tenets of decent work in spite of all the concessions and privileges from the Nigerian State. Is this the thank you?

“We want to ask government this question: what do you expect the unions to do when you, the State, abdicate your primary responsibility of protecting citizens and instead look the other way while capitalist entities rape and violate the people? By encouraging this lawlessness, the government is promoting a disdain for our nation’s institutions and emboldening the forces of impunity that have held our nation captive.

“This deliberate abdication of responsibility to protect Nigerian workers and the vulnerable is a declaration of War on the long-suffering citizens of Nigeria.

The Nigerian Constitution is clear; the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. This includes protection in the world of work. For the government to abdicate this responsibility, to side with the oppressor against the oppressed, is a declaration of a class war it can ill-afford.

“The working class and the poor masses of Nigeria are the true creators of the nation’s wealth, and we will not stand idly by while our rights are auctioned to the highest bidder.

“We understand the unfortunate link between Dangote’s wealth and politicians, but when Nigerians are ready, they will interrogate it and bring all the actors to account. For now, however, we are more concerned about stopping further violations of the rights of workers in all workplaces in Nigeria than responding to a Vice President who is clearly on self-voyage.

“Dangote Refinery is self-destructing by its cruel and selfish policies informed by unpardonable ignorance and unacceptable arrogance! It is its own enemy.

“Our responsibility remains the protection of workers and their rights, not just in Nigeria but across the world, and that is why we have worked robustly with others around the world to craft laws, conventions, and policies that protect our workplace to ensure a global balance.

“These are the frameworks that Dangote violates with impunity. As we speak, the contractors, constructing NLNG Train 7 in Bonny Rivers State, seem to have borrowed a leaf from Dangote and have sacked thousands of workers on the site and replaced them with Asians. Their offense: demanding that the taxes they have paid to the Government be remitted according to Law to the government coffers with appropriate receipts. This is the danger in encouraging lawlessness. We ask our government, what will you do about this? Thousands of jobs are gone again! Would you still pamper them?

“We state unequivocally to Vice President Shettima, No company, no matter how big, “strategic,” or well-connected, can operate outside the law or be bigger than Nigeria. If the Dangote Refinery is to be granted rights and privileges over and above the law, then the government must be prepared for the storms that such an injustice will inevitably unleash. There can be no peace without justice.

“On this World Day for Decent Work, the NLC demands that all entities operating in Nigeria should comply with Nigeria’s industrial relations laws, including the immediate recognition of all unions seeking to represent workers in their organisations. We cannot encourage impunity, and we still talk about democracy. Our human capital remains our core national asset and not some exploitative law-breaking entity.
“We demand an end to the sacred cow syndrome.

The government must demonstrate, through decisive action, that the law is no respecter of persons. The State’s duty is to protect the weak and vulnerable worker from the paws of greedy capitalists, not to offer them as sacrificial lambs.

NLC further demanded the creation of robust enforcement frameworks to guarantee compliance with the laws to ensure that decent work gaps are reduced in our nation’s workplaces to the barest minimum.
“We call for the strengthening of our labour administration institutions to ensure ruthless enforcement of compliance with all laws governing industrial relations. The era of impunity must end.”