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Deregulation, Others: Fashola Urges Labour, Civil Society To Proffer Better Solutions

May 13, 2009 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Wednesday congratulated labour for choosing the part of peaceful rallies instead of grounding the system to express their grievances just as he received on behalf of President Umar Yar ‘Adua a letter from Labour and representatives of civil society protesting deregulation and other issues.

The Labour and Civil Society Coalition comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and civil society groups which kicked off a nationwide rally from Lagos, is urging the Federal Government to increase the minimum wage of Nigerian workers to N52, 200, protesting against the planned deregulation of the nation’s petroleum sector by the Federal Government, calling for the implementation of the Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee Report and a credible electoral process.

Addressing members of the Coalition who called at the Lagos House in their thousands about noon, Governor Fashola urged Nigerian workers to embrace rallies and debates and shun strikes as strategies for settling labour-related disputes, reminding them that strikes are destructive even to the workers themselves as it is the worker that suffers in the end each time a strike is embarked upon and it paralyses the system.

The Governor who described the rally as a great achievement, declared, “I have seen a significant strategic change by the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress. Before, we use to have strikes and we shut down everywhere. But who are the people who suffer from those strikes? It is the same people on whose behalf we are fighting”, adding that rallies and debates are the ways such grievances are expressed in other parts of the world.

The Governor, however, objected to a reference from the NLC President about him being on the other side, saying that the “we” versus “them” dichotomy should always be avoided. He added that there is only one Government comprising the people and their elected representatives who are accountable to them.

Governor Fashola, who recalled that a few years ago such rally would not have been possible, said a major freedom has been won by the people of Nigeria, a freedom to be able to express themselves freely, pointing out that such freedoms must be fuelled by freedom of thought and creative thinking to provide alternatives which are demonstrably better because it is all about Nigeria.

Promising to deliver the labour message to Mr. President, Governor Fashola declared, “I don’t think that our leaders are unmindful of these problems, and therefore you have a role to play and that role is that you must see yourselves as part of the problem so that you can be part of the solution. I and my colleagues here we do not have all the solutions”.

“I say this because there are rights to protest, the right to ask for increased wages, the right to ask for electoral reforms. But I want to tell you that rights are not absolute, they come with responsibilities and duties and we must be ready to perform our duties as we ask for our rights”, the Governor said.,

Reiterating that there should not be an absolute position in asking for rights, Governor Fashola declared, “There must be flexibility, the willingness to dialogue, the willingness to provide better alternatives because there may be solution that you have which the leadership is not aware of. So taking a position, in deregulation, for example, you must provide an alternative. If you say no to electoral reform or that you do not accept this, then you must provide an alternative. This is the point I am making”.

“Today, we have the freedom, freedom to speak, freedom to ask for representation because you pay the taxes that sustain us here and you cannot afford not to be part of the process”, Governor Fashola said. He further urged the workers to be flexible in their demands saying there should be no absolute position as knowledge is not absolute.

“As for us as a government, we will continue to do our best and we will continue to ask you also to call us when our best seems not go as you desire”, the Governor said.

“As a government, we are sensitive to your feelings because we recognize that it is a privilege for us to be here and that we are not here because we put ourselves here. We have won some freedoms and we are happy about those freedoms. But let me say, a lot more freedoms can be won if we move to more rallies and more debates and move away from strikes and shut downs’”, the Governor said.

The Governor reminded the workers that the problems now engaging everyone’s attention today were not new, pointing out that the reason they have become topical today was because there is freedom to talk about them.

“In 1993, after the elections, we were not talking about power or about how to salvage the electoral process, but the problems were there”, he said.

According to him, “The reason this has happened is because some freedoms have been won. There is no longer the question whether your voice has been heard and for this you have to congratulate yourselves”.

“This is a great achievement and I congratulate you today, first because a few years ago, what you are doing today would not have been possible. May be soldiers would have been deployed to prevent you, may be teargas would be firing by now. This is a great achievement and I congratulate all those that have made it to happen”, the Governor said.

Earlier in his remarks before handing over the Labour letter to the Governor, the NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, said the significance of the visit to Governor Fashola was to deliver a letter to the Governor to the Federal Government on the demands of the Nigerian workers and by extension the demands of Nigerians.

Lamenting the present acute fuel scarcity which has brought back the long queues and waits at the filling stations, Comrade Omar declared, “We as Nigerians will not stand and watch government trying to muscle us out of existence”, adding, “We say no to Petroleum deregulation”.

On the minimum wage of N52, 200, the Labour President, who described Governor Fashola as Comrade on account of his pro-people policies, achievements and progressive administration, said the amount was an outcome of intensive research to find a living wage for the average Nigerian worker, adding that the present minimum wage was grossly inadequate.

The Labour President said it was regrettable that after President Umar Yar’Adua had acknowledged that the last elections were inadequate and set up an Electoral Reform Committee to reform the process, the Federal Executive Council had tinkered the report of the Committee out of relevance adding, “Only a truly Independent INEC can save our democracy”.

Other Labour and civil society leaders who spoke at the rally include the President of TUC, Comrade Peter Esele who noted that the problem of electoral fraud lay in the fact that if people are not allowed to choose their leaders, such leaders when they emerge will pander to the whims of their godfathers who sponsored them, the former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Dr. Dipo Fashina, and a representative of Nigerian Students, among others.