JOE AJAERO AND THE END OF SOLIDARITY

 In the chequered history of labour relations in Nigeria, every ardent follower of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its antecedents can attest to the fact that we have never had it this low. 

The mere mention of this pressure group and her leaders in recent times elicits an awkward sense of dissatisfaction from the people,  nay the working class. How did they come to this level of public disdain and contempt?

In the recent past, especially from 1999 to 2007, the NLC under the leadership of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, was an alternative voice of the people. Oshiomhole brought fond memories of the early labour activism of Pa Imoudu of blessed memories and the Railway union days. 

He was the sought-after bride of media houses, especially in times of fuel crises,  wage crises, and the regular tertiary institution’s face-offs with the government. Oshiomhole was trusted by the workers and the people as he negotiated several deals on the side of the masses, sometimes, at a personal risk in confrontations with the power that be. 

But what we have today, as represented by the Joseph Ajaero leadership, is nothing compared to it. More often than not, this crop of leaders has demonstrated their uncanny ability to bark and not to bite. 

Severally and at sundry times, they have lifted the hope of the masses by appearing to be standing with them in critical moments like the recent currency crisis and the petroleum products price increase coupled with the subsidy removal debacle. 

In all of this, nothing remarkable was achieved. The people felt abandoned and often accused them of selling out to the government of the day. This may have led to the recent apathy being experienced even within the various trade unions that make up the NLC and the people such that an NLC President was recently manhandled and brutalised by security forces in Imo State without an eyebrow being raised by the people in solidarity,  not even the trade unions. 

It is obvious that the “solidarity-forever” cliche has developed wings and flew out of the labour lexicon. There’s no more solidarity between the leadership of the unions and the workers on one hand, and that between NLC and the Nigerian masses on the other. How are the mighty fallen!

Austen Akhagbeme, Abuja