“A Conscienceless Senate"

TEXT OF A JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS AND TRADE UNION CONGRESS ON CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

ON MINIMUM WAGE BY THE SENATE HELD ON THURSDAY JULY 18, 2013 AT LABOUR HOUSE, ABUJA

Gentlemen of the Press,

We welcome you to this Press Conference, which is to address the recent vote on Constitutional amendments carried out by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with particular focus on the attempt to remove the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive legislative list.

At the Senate gallery a few days ago, we were all witnesses to the opening statement of the Senate President, Mr. David Mark before the ill-fated voting on amendments to the Constitution. Said he: “I urge all Senators to vote according to their conscience" and at the end of the exercise, he declared:” Today is a historic day in the history of Nigeria....we have voted for those issues that we think will make democracy to go on and make democracy to mature".

What an irony! In one breathe, the Senators proposed decentralisation of minimum wage against the people of Nigeria eroding the earning power of vulnerable workers, and at the same time gleefully and overwhelmingly voted for life pension for the leadership of the Senate!

Thus, our Senate has become self-serving and anti-people. Never in the history of this country, not even in the military era, have we witnessed such a charade and travesty on the popular wish of the people as was displayed at the Senate. For the avoidance of doubt, the propose amendment as passed by the Senate, reads as follows:

1.      The National Assembly may make laws for the federation or any part thereof with respect to:

I. prescribing a national minimum wage for federal government  employees including minimum wage for all categories of workers in federal establishments and agencies.

II. Establishment of a body for the regulation, supervision and enforcement of compliance with minimum wage for the federal government.

2.      The House of Assembly may subject to paragraph 1 hereto make laws relating to making laws on issues relating to payment of wages and other emoluments for staff of the civil service of the state, institutions, bodies and agencies established and managed by the Government of the state including local government councils and local government service commissions.

Our Understanding is that:

1. The Federal Government creates minimum wage for federal workers (civil servants) and agencies

2. Section II ostensibly establishes a body for the purpose of section 1 only.

3. The second section gives power to state governments to legislate for the same matter for the states subject to section 1 only. Thus, two regimes of minimum wage will now exist in Nigeria (federal and state). Government as an employer may have done a duty. What about government as a sovereign authority, socially contracted to all its citizens?

Here, we think the Senate has failed the nation. Also, a vital segment of the society private sector - has been completely been left out. Are we saying that the private sector can now do as they like in terms of remuneration to its workers?

Gentlemen of the Press,

You will recall that the outcome of a nationwide constituency consultation carried out by the House of Representatives before debates commenced on the amendments, the Nigerian people had overwhelmingly said a capital NO! to the removal of the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive to Concurrent List in the Constitution. It is rather scandalous for the Senate, who are representatives of the people to beat their chest and declare that their act which goes against the grain of the people's interest is "making history" and "maturing democracy".

At this juncture, it is pertinent to further expose the lack of understanding of our Senators on the concept of a National Minimum Wage. Without recourse to history and basic appreciation of global practices, the Distinguished members of the Upper Chambers assumed that a minimum wage is a wage review normally carried out by the Federal and State governments, oblivious of the historical and global concept of minimum wage being a benchmark to ensure that vulnerable workers, particularly the unorganised and the unskilled are not unduly exploited by ravenous, selfish and greedy employers and money bags.

By their misguided actions, the Senators have not only inadvertently excluded private sector workers from the minimum wage, but grossly violated ILO Convention 131, which the country is signatory to. The arguments of the now embattled Governors Forum flaunted during negotiations on the National Minimum Wage, which the Senators have now accepted hook line and sinker was that the setting of minimum wage by the Federal Government violated the principle of true federalism. To all intent and purposes, this is

ill-informed and at best infantile. They have not only confused themselves with the need as representatives of the people to protect the most susceptible and defenseless workers, but naively politicised the minimum wage with fiscal federalism. If fiscal or financial autonomy were the issue, private firms would not be brought under minimum wage laws anywhere in the world. For example, the Senate needed to be educated that of 194 countries responding on the issue as at 2011, 173 have minimum wage regimes in line with global standards.

It is apparent that the Senate had given in to pressures from selfish and self-serving state governors, of whom remnants of them could be found taking refuge in the Senate after looting state coffers and exploiting poor workers. While we are disappointed at the action of Senators to encourage continued exploitation of workers and the Nigerian people, we are not surprised at the outcome of this ignoble exercise, as the process unlike that of the House of Representatives was shrouded in secrecy, exclusivity and conspiracy. Even as the Senate ostensibly held a one- day public hearing on the issue, neither the labour movement nor critical stakeholders were officially invited.

It may interest the distinguished members of the Senate to know that views expressed in the Constituency Consultations painstakingly carried out by their counterparts in the House that rejected removal of the minimum wage from the Exclusive to Concurrent List, was later collated with the labour movement and all stakeholders present and the outcome transparently seen by all. That the Senate could go against the popular wish of the people speaks volumes of the electoral process that brought some of them to office. Rather than serve the people who elected them, our Senators have become arrogant, and self-serving in the interest of capital and money bags.

To us, as is the practice globally, Constitution amendment should be made a process-led approach and a bottom up exercise. Short-changing the will of the people through "voting" that deprive workers and working families their hard won and collective patrimony, obliterates the very essence of legislature as the mouth piece of the people.

This attempt to alter the jurisdiction of minimum wage legislation, is an aberration to our quest for democratic governance to reflect people’s aspiration, as it has turned a supposed people’s institution as the Senate into iron law of oligarchy. As a working class movement, we deplore this attempt by the Senate to tinker with the minimum wage, as it will further segment the labour market in Nigeria and create further confusion in the industrial relations regime, and the entire social dialogue mechanism.

It is pertinent to reiterate that minimum wage fixing has nothing to do with fiscal federalism as taunted by some dubious politicians; rather, it serves as a benchmark upon which other layers of government and the private sector could set standards for their employees. While we have consistently advocated for the practice of true federalism, politicising the minimum wage issue into the federalism debate merely confuses issues. The concept of a national minimum wage evolved in most countries from the genuine concerns over growing incidences of the working poor and the need to protect the most vulnerable in society.

We believe that as a nation, we need to stay with this tradition. The issue of minimum wage is correctly located in the 1999 Constitution, which ironically is a product of military rule, and should remain that way as there is need to strengthen not weaken the protection to the most vulnerable groups in our nation. We also need to avoid the consequences of developing a segmented labour market that will encourage sporadic and wild cat industrial crisis. We call on the House of Representatives as the last bastion of our representative governance to side with the people, as they have always done, to ensure that the minimum wage remains in the Exclusive List to protect poor working families against the vagaries of thoughtless and rabid neo-liberal economic policies.

As a response to the challenge posed by the Senate to further exploit and pauperise working families, we call on state councils and the leadership of industrial unions to remain calm and remain focused as we get prepared to address this incipient, but growing impunity in our nation by the political class.

Abdulwahed I. Omar

President, NLC

Bobboi B. Kaigam,

President, TUC

WHEN A RENOWNED PROFESSOR TELLS LIES (Professor Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka Lied) By Segun Melchizedek Edward II

WHEN A RENOWNED PROFESSOR TELLS LIES (Professor Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka Lied)

Segun Melchizedek Edward II writes in response to the attack of Prof. Wole Soyinka against GMB (Crimes of Buhari).

If there was one disease the human race ought to dread most, it is the twin-disease of arrogance and ignorance spurn from knowing one is famous and wrapping outright falsehood in finely crafted language. Unfortunately, people infected with the disease are so sure many would not take the pains to research their assertions and authenticate what they put forth what with the excruciating economic conditions many a Nigerian contends with on a daily basis – too busy seeking a means of self-sustenance to have time for academic research and critical thinking. Professor Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka, grandson of the Rev. Canon J. J. Ransome-Kuti, his maternal grandfather, was dead wrong on so many counts in his essay on Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

Please, do not get it wrong. I have utmost respect for the Nobel Laureate, a playwright and prolific author of “The Interpreters”, “You Must Set Forth at Dawn”, “The Swamp Dwellers”, “The Lion and the Jewel” and so many more classical works and one of the leading lights of Nigerian authors of the second generation of the nation’s literary giants.

I feel so pained one with such outstanding achievements on many fronts would fail to research what he puts forth in the public domain, knowing many would run with it without verifying the issues raised therein. I admit though that man, in his present fallen state, is subject to making mistakes – sometimes very costly ones too and our illustrious professor is not immune.

Soyinka is not in a position to castigate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. While he talks about alleged human rights abuses, he plays the blind man to the excesses of the present civilian administration. Soyinka made no comment when a governor whipped a PHCN official in this dispensation. He made no comment when a critic of the Bauchi State Governor was hounded into detention for speaking the truth. Soyinka was so audibly silent when a governor summoned a Reverend Father to Government House and flogged him mercilessly. I can go on and on. All over the world leaders, in their zeal to deliver on their mandates, might commit one infraction or the other and they do step on toes. It does not make sense to play down on the weight of circumstantial evidence at the time and to seek to malign Gen. Buhari, even when the same respected professor demonstrated in his treatise that he does not know the reasons for the decisions or he chose to feign ignorance.

Let us examine for ourselves the veracity of the professor’s claims. You have a right to know the truth and many alive today will testify to the facts that I present herein. I focus on three major outright false allegations levelled by Professor Wole Soyinka against Gen. Buhari.

A Mere Hoax: The 53 Suitcases

It is obvious that Prof. Wole Soyinka chose to pander to baseless sentiments founded on outright lies. First, Atiku Abubakar whom he had referred to as the Customs Officer in question is still alive and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari had since asked Atiku to speak up. For the records, Buhari was not at the airport. What was reported to the then Head of State was that an Emir had returned to the country with his retinue of 15 wives and so many children and someone had mischievously counted all the luggage they had returned with, claiming they had contained foreign currencies. One of the Emirs that returned was the father of then Major Jokolo. Courtesy demands that he goes to welcome his father and he had gone there to do so. Even Atiku Abubakar never reported seeing foreign currencies in any of the luggage. He is still alive and I believe Professor Wole Soyinka could so easily have reached him. I still want to throw the challenge to any journalist who had seen foreign currencies in any of the luggage should step forward and say so. It is interesting that none of the media outfits that spread the rumors reported sighting even a cent. If, as Atiku Abubakar claims, the military boys rudely whisked the items away, how then did he or anyone see foreign currencies in the suitcases?

Buhari’s Refusal to Appear before The Oputa Panel

The Oputa Panel set up by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was not a constitutional body neither could its findings be said to be binding on anyone. It is critical to note that the Oputa Panel never indicted Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. It did not even have the mandate to do so. What Gen. Obasanjo tried to do with the Oputa Panel was akin to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa with a view to calming frayed nerves and to foster unity what with the pent up anger built up over the botched June 12, 1993 Presidential Election won by Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola a free and fair process that was scuttled by Prof. Wole Soyinka’s friend whose evil action he did not condemn: Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. The only straw Prof. Wole Soyinka could clutch onto in a sea of lies he amazingly peddles is that the former Head of State did not appear before the panel, forgetting that the Head of State had immunity for his actions while in office and as at the time the panel was set up and until this very second, the immunity clause has not been expunged from our laws. Legally, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was under no obligation to appear before the panel. I really would not know why the renowned professor would overlook these established facts and run to the public with half-truths and outright lies. Until this day, I have not heard or seen Prof. Wole Soyinka clamour for the removal of that vexatious clause from our laws.

Alleged Human Rights Abuses

Professor Wole Soyinka was already an elder states man when Gen. Muhammadu Buhari became Head of State. He, therefore, cannot feign ignorance of the compelling circumstances that brought in the military. Those circumstances required drastic measures to tackle with a view to lifting off the nation her pariah status in the comity of nations. The prevalent circumstances at the time include:

Widespread corruption that crippled the economy; Nigeria had assumed the notorious status of a major drug trafficking hub; Excessive violence due to irresponsible politics on the part of the civilians who had held sway leading to unprecedented carnage and wanton bloodshed and we witness a repeat of it right now; Hoarding of essential food items, petroleum products and the essentials for daily living by an unscrupulous few who created artificial scarcity to sell their stock at cut-throat prices; Excessive dependence on import and abuse of foreign exchange allocations as well as import licensing in such a manner that encouraged nepotism, tribalism and excessive fraud; All of the foregoing put excessive pressure on the economy and created galloping inflation and the Naira began to be worthless in terms of its exchange value with other major world currencies; There was a general abysmal slide in the educational sector and the nation experienced the horror of unbridled examination malpractices and our institutions were producing some idiots and imbeciles who presently ruin everything in the nation; Workers were receiving wages for work not done; Public servants stayed away from their work places for days and would come to work late; Head teachers and principals in schools introduced all sorts of illegal levies on students; Students were found loitering aimlessly on the streets during school hours and indulging in all forms of crime; The nation was generating a lot of revenues from various sources that were not judiciously and productively managed and public infrastructure were in a state of total disrepair while state funds that could have been properly channelled by vision went into private pockets; and there are many more.

It is obvious from all the foregoing that drastic measures were required to restore the image of Nigeria and to put her on the path of true growth and development on all fronts. Though some measures were truly drastic, they were inevitable. They were simply sine qua non to turning around the fortunes of the nation for the good of all. There were instantaneous results in economic rebound from a comatose state to a healthy status. The nation made massive savings. Inflationary pressure ebbed. Nigerians learned to do things in an orderly fashion. The state of heightened insecurity was managed competently and with drastic measures and the unending violence was curbed. Nigerians caught on with the can – do spirit. The exchange rate of the Naira to international currencies improved. There were massive investments in infrastructure within a short time. The country’s image improved instantly and we did not borrow a dime to do any of those things. Is Prof. Wole Soyinka feigning ignorance of those things? He obviously is doing so for reasons best known to him. He was a living witness at the time. Let his conscience be his judge.

It is, however, not surprising that those who were the major beneficiaries of the rot prior to the Buhari administration and whose nefarious activities were cut short in the interest of all Nigerians are not happy and still have an axe to grind with the man who was fair, just and impartial who also chose to channel the nation’s wealth towards productive ends to oil the engine of growth and true development, rather than participate in cornering the nation’s wealth. Quite a number of them infused massive funds into some media houses and dictate to the editors what to write and whose image to destroy. Their common enemy is Gen. Muhammadu Buhari who stands with the people anytime and all the time in an unflinching manner and no matter whose Ox was gored.

It beats me that Prof Wole Soyinka could ignore all these facts that were extant at the time to play on the English Language to tell polished lies which remain what they are no matter the finesse that went into crafting them: pure and unadulterated and highly concentrated lies from the pits of hell.

What the professor did not tell us is that he was also ashamed of the status of Nigeria in the comity of nations at the time. He did not tell us that he was disappointed at the turn of events years after a hard-won independence from the nation’s colonial master. He did not mention salient piercing questions his peers asked about the state of affairs in his country and how ashamed he was.

It is also significant that Prof. Wole Soyinka did not tell us what he would have done if he were in Gen. Buhari’s shoes at the time. There was this urgency to stem the tide of gross indiscipline on all fronts that made the nation a laughing stock. I also find it hard to believe that Prof. Wole Soyinka chose to ignore the roles of civilians who were always serving in every shade of government who added the negative image to various administrations with their notorious activities.

It is also shocking that he chose to ignore the realities of the working of the military administration under the leadership of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. The decisions were jointly made at the Supreme Military Council with many civilians as advisers at federal and state levels. He also forgot or he deliberately chose to ignore the fact that the laws that were termed draconian, though necessary at the time, were all drafted by civilians who were lawyers some of whom are Senior Advocates of Nigeria today with inputs from civilian directors and heads of MDAs. There was no time we really ran a pure military government in Nigeria. Civilians ran the business as Permanent Secretaries and advisers and offered their services as drafts men to the soldiers.

It is interesting – quite interesting – that Prof. Wole Soyinka who believes everything military was evil accepted to serve in the most corrupt of all the military regimes in Nigeria headed by Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. He was the pioneer Chairman of the Federal Roads Safety Commission. I had actually thought that a man of principle should never have accepted to serve under such a government. Could that be the reason he was silent at the atrocities of his good friend and benefactor, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida?

I can go on and on. The father of secret cults on Nigerian campuses goofed in so many ways in that cheap essay written in fine English. It is so unfortunate that he succeeded in convincing anyone at all who also runs with unfounded rumors just because a revered Professor of Letters uttered them.

Facts are truly sacred and even lies told in the finest language cannot become truth. It will be announced from the rooftop

EGYPT’S UPRISING: MY MESSAGE TO NIGERIAN MUSLIMS

EGYPT’S UPRISING: MY MESSAGE TO NIGERIAN MUSLIMS

By

Semiu Ayobami Akanmu

I really doubt if critical objective analysis still exist in our intellectual domain. Those who are supporting Morsi or opposing him simply because of his religious affiliation and his party (Muslim Brotherhood) are the minds responsible for the perpetual suffering of the masses. They continue to allow the flawed Marx's saying: 'Religious is the opium of the masses' to pass ingenuity test.

It is quite unknown to them that these faith-based political parties do not in any manner represent the interest of the suffering masses. Instead, they water the hoggish but sadistic propensity of a class of the capitalists and feudalists. They are just exploiting 'RELIGION' as a means to their self-cantered ends. For the purpose of modesty, I will not mention names of some of these players in the Nigeria's religious-political field. I only wish the gullible can see beyond their noses!!

The sincere ones among my Muslims brethren must not be allowed to be choked by the overwhelming staring ill-treatment. Taking through Democracy will never bring the desire. Apart from the fact that both the means and the ends must be in conformity with Islamic tenet, history has taught us that Democracy's proprietor are watching their structure so keenly. They will deploy all apparatuses to crush any hijack. The death toll in Egypt now is an evidence in this direction. Lest not forget the power tussle in Syria has done none of the sides any good.  

The contemporary political Islam needs to be jettisoned. Yes, I abhor the contemporary political Islam.  You must not be jaundiced not to see the word 'CONTEMPORARY'. The sincerity of the players always fails when subjected to authenticity test.
Apart from being a Muslim, having studied the world adoptable economic models, it is arguable that Islamic models for economic sustenance remain the most infallible and plausible. Those who want to contend with this can through up an intellectual debate.

The contemporary political Islamists are Neo-Liberalists. In Malaysia, an Islamic party pitched its tent with a Buddhist party in the country's last general election, because they want to wrestle power from the sitting government. You need to ask the interception of the both religions. The Indonesia's counterpart is facially telling people there is no Hudud in their manifestos. However, as a student of politics of power, all are power-mongers, using convenient way to exploit the masses' votes.

In Philippine, the Moro Islamic front was endorsed by the US because they agreed on economic inter-relationship. In this case, their secession struggle was endorsed and they will be leaving Philippine to form Moro Republic. You should ask also why the so-called Anti-West campaigners suddenly became an ally of the same nation.

The occasional 'We-no-go-gree' Islamists are chess used in playing the game of politics. Those who have read about the Islamic Salvation Front of Algeria and Hamaz of Palestine will agree with me that the recent happening in Egypt is a further validation of the incompatibility of Islam and Democracy.

The local ones in Nigeria have tested their sheer ignorance. I wish they invest in a venture that will be rewarding. Investing in Democracy will only assured you of LIQUIDATION of spirituality, lives and property!!

At such a point in our journey in life, we are faced with many difficulties, teeming challenges, intricacies and technicalities. There comes a question: What is the way out?
I have once received a question: 'You have bashed the violent way of Al-Shabab and Boko Haram, you also condemned the methodology of Al-Qaeda, now you are saying those who took to power via ballot are kidding, then what can we do?

It must be noted that the complexity of our problem is beyond a binary answer (Yes or No), it is even not that of probability theory. I only hope fuzzy logic will solve this out (Apology for being too computer scientific). Fuzzy logic gives us the opportunity of varying points of accuracy as the situations agree with.

First, we need to understand that: if we are driven by the textual evidence that Sharee'a will till rule the world, we must know it is a matter of 80% faith, and 20% of our work. This will avoid us the temptation of not verifying our methodology. Since we believe more in our faith than our work, we will ensure that the work is strictly in conformity with Islam. We will not be too zealous and emotional.

If we hardly believe the little but Islam-compliant work can do, then our belief that Hell and Heaven exist is a lip service. If we hardly believe Democracy and Terrorism cannot give us Sharee'a after all this logical chain of happenings and histories staring at our faces, then that we believe in Angel is utter hypocrisy. Then, what is the work?

I am just an analyst, a scientist and a dialectician.  I am not an Islamic scholar; hence I will avoid dipping to matters of Islamic jurisprudence. My position is just a fall out of my analytical work. The work we need to do is creating our micro system (to the best of its capacity) within the macro system. Our proposed system will surely have its limitation, but we shall continue growing it.

It would have been better if I am not addressing majorly Third world Muslims, and specifically Nigeria Muslims. The division caused by sectarianism, ethnocentrism and organization-centrism is a potent killer of this initiative. It had killed many previous attempts to adopt this approach, and it will continue till we grow emotionally matured.
The retrogression fuelled by the class of Muslim Aristocrats, a sub-set of the capitalist class is also evident. This set of people has expropriated previous struggles and attempts to launch this initiative as a vehicle to drive home their economic gains. We pray Allah change them, because it will not be easy on the day of Qiyamat if they die on this.

However, till that anti-progress virus is exterminated, and the parasitic elitist army in our fold turn a new leaf, incubating this idea and its support at individual's capacity is the only option we are left with.  We must not forget that individual personal soul is the first point of call, before that of the families, relatives and communities. This yoruba adage: 'Ti ina ba'njoni, t'io jo omo eni, tara eni la ko yanju' will do justice to my intent.

After the call to Allah and His Prophet (SAW) forms the crux of our Da'wah, our work will be creating all institutions that will allow us to live relatively comfortably without any interference of the 'outside world', and participation in its institutional mechanisms.

This is more of action than talk or expression of 'verbs'.  May Allah give us the faith, steadfastness and understanding.