The next president will attempt to impose higher fuel prices, higher inflation, unemployment rates, taxes, school fees, and electric tariffs. The Government will continue strive to impose its “No work No pay” policy and postpone any increase in the minimum wage. We need to struggle against these attacks in order to survive.
We face a series of continued attacks. We need to unite and encourage the new leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to lead action and to provide effective solidarity action where workers take action. We need action to survive the extending crisis.
Fuel price increase
All the major presidential candidates have promised to increase PMS prices (remove petrol subsidy) by June.
They have promised to crush all opposition and privatize all publicly owned refineries. If this policy is allowed to be implemented the price of petrol may increase to as much as N1,000 a litre by the end of this year. The price in Ghana is now around N800 a litre.
Any fuel subsidy removal must result in no fuel price increases. We will need massive resistance by the labour movement over the next few months to achieve this goal.
National Minimum wage
N30,000 a month is not enough to meet the basic subsistence needs of working people. None of the leading presidential candidates has promised to review the national minimum wage.
The minimum wage has only been increased once since 2011 and this has not been fully implemented in some states. The ILO says that the minimum wage should be increased every year as happens in most countries. For more details see: https://tinyurl.com/minwageng
Increased electricity tariff
The ruling class plans to privatize electricity transmission and break it up. The past privatization exercise failed to improve the electric power situation. The electric power gap (difference between the electric power demand and supply) continues to widen. Only half of families even have access to electricity.
Workers will have to resist the planned increase in electric tariffs.
No work No pay
Salaries are always late and fractional salaries are not uncommon. However, it wishes to impose a “No work No pay” policy on workers. This aims to undermine the use of strikes for workers struggles. For more details see: https://socialistlabour.com.ng/2022/11/07/non-payment-of-university-salaries-is-an-attack-on-us-all
In the case of the ASUU strike, 8.5 months of work was done last year by academic workers and the state has refused to pay. There is a need for solidarity with ASUU.
The presidential candidates of the main parties have promised higher school fees, student loans and no strikes in the universities and other tertiary institutions. The struggles in the education sector should be multi-sectorial involving students, academic workers and non-academic workers.
Governments are also using other attacks, like the recent aviation workers strike when a minister claimed that it was an essential service and so strikes were illegal.
There will be other arenas of struggle that will unfold this year (anti-police brutality, against ethnic nationalism etc). The trade union federations (NLC and TUC) must prepare for a year of intensified struggles to defend our interests.
We need to develop a massive campaign to support the trade unions to lead an active struggle so that we can survive the next government.
If your trade union, at national state or local level, or your civil society organisation supports this statement please send you contact details to: socialistlabour.ng@gmail.com
