I stand here grateful to the Creator for our lives, humbled by the task before us to help build the Nigeria of our collective dreams in this new century. I also appreciate both past and present leaders of the country and the labour movement for their service to our nation, as well as the cooperation shown by untiring workers and Nigerians as a whole. I especially commend the working people more because, despite the raging storms all these years, they have moved on and remained faithful and hopeful that someday everything will turn around for the good of the masses of our country.
WHY WE CELEBRATE MAY DAY
Your Excellencies, comrades, ladies and gentlemen, while we appreciate you all, we must specially give salute to late Governor of Kano state, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi of the defunct Peoples Redemption Party, who in 1981 gave a nod to the celebration of May Day in the country. In Nigeria, like most other parts of the world, May Day celebration (or Workers Day as it is called in some other countries) is a symbolic reflection on the sacrifices made by the global working class in the historic fight for decent working hours which culminated in the execution of four unionists in Chicago, Illinois on 11th of November, 1887. Specifically, May Day is set aside to celebrate hard work, service and dedication to duty.
This year’s May Day celebration is historic. It is historic because this is the first Workers’ Day celebration after our Centenary as a nation. Coincidentally it’s also my first May Day as President of TUC.
THE STATE OF THE NATION
The theme of this year’s May Day, “Building Enduring Peace and Unity: Panacea for Sustainable National Development” is apt, especially in view of the comatose nature of our socio-economic infrastructure, the near-breakdown of security and the recent spate of killings and destruction of property in the North-East and some other parts of the country.
Comrades, the fact that we are in the midst of crisis is by no longer disputable. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is threatened by incidents of violence and terrorism due to unalloyed greed and irresponsibility on the part of many of our successive leaders and our collective failure to nurture our hard-earned democracy and prepare the nation for a new progressive age.
Perhaps this is because our independence, as some have argued, was attained on a platter of gold. But our democracy is not so. The memory of those who lost their lives and those who were incarcerated during the struggle for the enthronement of the present democratic dispensation is still very fresh in the minds of genuine progressives. I say “genuine progressives” because many in the political class now describe themselves as “progressives” just to deceive the electorate.
Comrades, I am sure that you will agree with me that our nation seems to be experiencing serious systemic failure. Homes have been destroyed, jobs shed and employees abused at will, businesses shut down. Our health care is not at its best; our schools fail too many as results yearly rolled out by WAEC, GCE and NECO have testified. Each day brings further evidence that the reform in the power sector, the power house of any economy in the world may become a mirage all because of clandestine interests that would rather have us continually import electricity generating sets.
The factors listed above are strong indications of crisis. I can assure you that the challenges we face today are real, grave and many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time with the lackadaisical attitude put up by “ogas at the top.” But know this, fellow Nigerians, that our dream and aspiration for our country will be met because we have chosen hope over fear, peace and unity of purpose over conflict and discord. We are determined and confident that the outcome of the on-going National Conference will kill the petty grievances, false promises and recriminations that have over the years strangled our politics and economy and denied us development.
Nigeria is a great nation but it must be understood that greatness cannot be in words alone. Greatness is never a given. It must be earned. We have not yet earned the greatness that the world attributes to us. The truth is the situation in the country now is not a path for the faint-hearted and those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame for themselves and their cronies.
Thank God for May Day as it affords us perhaps the best opportunity to let the president know that indeed this is not the best of times in our dear country. We can prove it to you, Mr. President, that some of your cabinet members and aides have not always told you the truth. For instance, some of your cabinet’s members told us not too long ago that our economy was not healthy and that the country was broke. And now they say the economy is in perfect order, one of the leading economies in the world and the most progressive in Africa. We, the organised labour, wonder when this double-speak will end.
Our nation is endowed with enormous natural resources yet gropes in the darkness of poverty; narrow interests, putting off unpleasant but necessary decisions. Hopefully this celebration will do at least one thing for us: encourage us to pick ourselves up, shake away the dust, and begin again the work of re-making Nigeria.
Workers’ Contribution to Development
To limit the contribution of workers to economic, political and social development is to undermine their effort in building a strong and prosperous nation for generations unborn. There are numerous contributions Nigerian workers have made whether in the area of economic direction of the country, debt management, rights of students, the struggle against military dictatorship, charting the political future of the country, politics and the electoral process hold the leaders accountable to the people, and other related issues. As organized labour we shall not only continue to pursue a vision of national development but shall also fight for its sustainability.
As I mentioned earlier, the workers of this great country constitute a major factor why the country has not disintegrated and shall never disintegrate, because whenever and wherever we meet at any level, our differences in religion, ethnic nationality and language become inconsequential. We wish this were the case amongst our political leaders as well.
Your Excellencies, comrades ladies and gentlemen, it is a good thing we have celebrated our centenary as a nation. Unfortunately some of the ills fought against by the founding fathers of the country and the labour movement are still persisting hundred years later. For example, the obnoxious colonial policies such as poor wages which led to the general strike of 1945 and others after it are still with us today. Decades of mismanagement and non-co-operation from successive governments have seen to it that the national minimum wage as at today is still a meagre N18,000, needless to talk about living wage.
Right from the colonial era to the early post-independence years and through the unfortunate civil war that lasted three years and till date, organised labour has remained one of the few truly pan- national institutions advocating national unity, justice and peace and pointing the way forward.
During the military era and its maradonic schemes and romance with the Bretton wood institutions, the leadership of labour was at the forefront in the struggle against every anti-people stance including the neo-liberal policies that eventually led to Structural Adjustment Programme of the 1980s. Another milestone was again achieved when labour rose up to end military rule. These struggles were not without scars as some of our members became harassed and even incarcerated.
Although God finally answered our age-long prayers and democracy returned in 1999, labour has not said it is uhuru yet. We have not kept mute in our pursuit for the realisation of the dream of our founding fathers for the country. The charge is on us not to fold our arms and watch peace; unity and sustainable development elude our dear country. The likely consequences would simply be too great if we renege on our duty to continue to pursue the actualisation of these basic ideals and oppose the anti-people and neo-liberalism policies.
The list of workers’ contribution to our nation’s development and wellbeing is endless. However we are pained, dismayed and discouraged that the more sacrifices we make the more unlikely it seems that we shall see the Nigeria of our dreams. Of course our agitations have achieve so much, but more and more problems seem to crop up on a daily basis, mostly contrived by ill-willed leaders and other enemies of our society.
Let me use this opportunity to thank the Federal Government for the convocation of the National Conference. The position of TUC, albeit Labour in the conference is very clear and it has been presented at the plenary and the committees but I need not bore you with it here but as responsible Nigerians, we shall pursue an egalitarian society, where Justice, Peace and Equality hold sway. I do not wish to prejudice the outcome of the conference but I know Nigeria will be better for it.
CONCLUSION
We hope our other compatriots at the Conference will endorse same. We also earnestly advise the federal government and all Nigerians to respect the decisions that will be reached at the Conference. Unfortunately there is still some uncertainty as to what the government plans to do with the resolutions of the Conference. We think such resolutions should be implemented as the sovereign will of the people and not subjected to any tinkering or sifting by the executive or legislative arms of government.
The worst case scenario should be for the resolutions to be subjected to a referendum of the Nigerian people. Anything beyond that would be counterproductive and lead to failure of the entire project. We have had too many failed attempts at holding similar conferences and/or implementing the decisions of same, and would like to see the present administration succeeding and proving itself positively different on this occasion. We must start this new century on a sound footing.
Your Excellency Mr. President, sir, fellow comrades, thank you all for listening. Happy new century!
Aluta Continua!!!!
Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, the President of the Trade Union Congress, delivered this speech at this year’s May Day celebration.
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