Grinding on the Wheels Of Strikes

Nigeria is on the verge of collapse due to strikes which government official have ignored in favour of re-election campaigns

By Chris Ajaero

The national association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria, NARD, which called out its members for a warning strike, February 19 to 21, has threatened to embark on an indefinite strike in a week’s time if the Federal Government fails to commence the payment of the 22 percent increment in basic salary approved for health workers since 2001.

If the association eventually carries out its threat, it will add to the increasing number of strikes witnessed in Nigeria since the beginning of the year. More than five strikes have already been recorded since January. The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR chapter of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, the Nigerian Union of Railway men, NUR, and workers of the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan and the Central Working Committee of Freight Forwarders of Nigeria, CWCFFN are among those that are still on strike or have just called off.

The impending strike by resident doctors is in continuation of the prolonged agitation by health workers in 2001, which culminated in a four-month strike. It was after the strike that the Income, Salaries, and Wages Commission advised the federal ministry of health to request the Federal Government to release the money for the payment of the 22 percent award in the health sector. Since then, the Federal Government has not implemented the approved wage package and two years of arrears have accumulated.

Abbas Abdus-Salam, president, NARD, said the warning strike was necessitated by the unwillingness of the ministry of health to resolve the issues  surrounding the implementation of the award. The association had, in separate letters dated January 6 and January 25, 2003 , reminded Alphonsus Nwosu, minister of health, of the need to commence implementation of the award without further delay to avert the impending crisis. But the  minister did not respond to the letters and this angered members of NARD who described government’s seeming inaction as “totally unacceptable.”

Mark Nwoga, president, Association of Resident Doctors, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH-ARD, told Newswatch last week, that the warning strike was meant  to alert  the government of its plan.  He said the warning strike did not adversely  affect the patients  because resident doctors had promised the management of LUTH that the strike would have a human face. According to him, all the patients that were brought in on emergency were attended to by resident doctors.

Ayo Olagunju, public relations officer of LUTH confirmed that the warning strike had a human face. He told Newswatch that resident doctors in the hospital demonstrated enough understanding because of the meeting they held with management over the issue. It was at that meeting that the management appealed to them not to subject their patients to undue medical hardship.

However, despite the warning strike, government appears not ready to meet the demand of resident doctors. Newswatch learnt that the meeting between Abdus-Salam and the health minister on February 18 over the issue ended in a deadlock. The health minister was said to have insisted that government was not willing to implement the award because there has been phenomenal increase in the salary and allowances of health workers since the inception of the  Obasanjo administration. According to him,  health workers now enjoy more than 500 percent increase in their total emoluments compared with what they were earning before 1999.

The executives of NARD are not happy with what they termed the “non-specific and public statements on the said implementations” by the health minister. Newswatch learnt that the national executive committee, NEC, of the association will meet in Benin , Edo State on March 8, to declare a total and indefinite strike. Already, the president of NARD had in his letter to the health minister dated January 25, informed the Federal Government to regard it “as an ultimatum that if within six weeks.. . the payment of this award has not commenced,” the association may be forced to embark on strike to press for its full implementation.

While the national body of resident doctors prepares to declare indefinite strike, health workers at the University College Hospital , Ibadan are already on full-scale strike. The workers who have been on strike since the beginning of this year have vowed not to go back to work until the 22 percent salary increment was paid. The hospital, which used to record a large number of patients has now been deserted by patients who had waited  in vain to see whether the management of the hospital would resolve the dispute. Worried by the strike, the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA,  had at the end of its recent meeting in Ibadan enjoined its management board to authorise payment of the contentious 22 percent salary increment to all workers, including doctors as soon as possible. The communiqué  which was signed by Kayode Obembe, first vice-president of NMA stated that it was regrettable that the strike had led to loss of lives and waste  of resources.

Last week, freight forwarders, under the auspices of the Central Working Committee of Freight Forwarders of Nigeria went on a two-day warning strike to compel government to correct certain anomalies in the Nigerian ports system. Taiye Oyeniyi, its chairman listed a nine-point demand which freight forwarders want the Federal Government to address so as to avert an indefinite service withdrawal by freight forwarders . They include, reduction of the annual licence renewal fees from N200,000 to N50,000 and the setting up of a panel of enquiry into the killing February 6, 2003 of members of the National Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO/Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, REATAN, by police.  They also want the National Maritime  Authority, NMA and the Nigerian Shippers Council to look into frivolous and duplicative charges by the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, and shipping companies and to consider a downward review of exorbitant charges for services in bonded warehouses. The freight forwarders warned that if government failed to respond to their demands 14 days after the warning strike, they “will be forced to withdraw their  services from the ports indefinitely.”  The strike was, however, partially effective as some freight forwarders went about their normal business at the Lagos ports last Tuesday.  But the strike was effective on the part of transporters as most trucks could neither load nor offload at the ports last Tuesday.

Two weeks ago, the DPR chapter of PENGASSAN, embarked on an indefinite strike after the expiration of 14 days ultimatum issued by its management and government to pay a backlog of allowances and grant autonomy, to DPR as the regulatory arm of the nation’s oil industry. Beside the demand for autonomy the workers were demanding for the payment of their rent subsidy, maintenance allowance, arrears of 2002 salary increment and hazard allowance.

Patrick Emordi, general secretary DPR of PENGASSAN, said the strike was not intended to make people suffer but to compel government to grant the agency its autonomy. He noted that if the autonomy was granted, DPR would be better funded and so would not rely on ministry budgetary system which did not augur well for an oil  regulatory body.

Shina Luwoye, president of PENGASSAN, decried the  situation  whereby DPR a vital monitoring and regulatory body in the oil and gas sector should remain under the control of the ministry of petroleum resources

He said DPR workers experience a lot of difficulties daily as they strive to work effectively in an environment where its “funding and administrative capacities are tied to the bureaucratic hurdles of the ministry.”

Although the strike was suspended after four days, it tended to have brought back the problem of fuel scarcity in Nigeria . The suspension of the strike was as a result of the intervention by  Musa Gwadabe, minister of labour and some officials of the ministry of petroleum resources. Luwoye insisted that the strike was suspended on the grounds that government would honour the agreements reached, especially the area pertaining to workers’ demand for a measure of autonomy.

Experts in the oil industry believe that the suspended strike would only be lifted if  officials of the federal  ministries of labour and petroleum resources would persuade the National Assembly to accord an accelerated treatment to the autonomy bill which would transform DPR into the Petroleum Inspectorate  Commission. The bill which should give the DPR the autonomy it had been craving for had been in the National Assembly for more than one year without being passed into law. This was despite the assurances by David Brigidi, chairman, Senate committee on petroleum resources, and West Idahosa , chairman House of Representatives committee on petroleum resources that the issue would be pursued with all seriousness

Paul Ekele, chairman, DPR chapter of PENGASSAN is, however, optimistic that government officials would  facilitate the passage of the bill into law. “The meeting with Alhaji Musa Gwadabe, minister of labour is an indication that those earlier delaying the bill have agreed to facilitate its passage  into law with the collaboration of the National Assembly since they have the power to do so even within 12 hours,” Ekele said.

The Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC, was not spared from the spate of strikes in the country in recent times. The leadership of the Nigerian Union of Railway men , NUR, had in November, last year, directed all  rail workers nationwide to stay at home until their salary arrears and accumulated pension for retired staff of the parastatals were paid. The salary arrears and pension were estimated to be N2.9 billion. Ado Maigoro, acting president, NUR said the strike was necessitated by government nonchallant attitude to the welfare of rail workers and pensioners. The strike which paralysed railway transport in the  country lasted for four months before it was suspended three weeks ago when government approved N1.74 billion to offset the five months salary arrears of serving railway workers.

However, by last Monday, rail services were yet to resume because the workers claimed the money approved was yet to be paid. David Ndakotsu, NRC’s assistant director, public relations, said management  was working round the clock to ensure the salaries were paid.

There is, however, a snag in the decision of NUR to suspend the strike as pensioners have protested the action of the workers’ union. Adebayo Shofunmade, president of the association of pensioners who  led the  protest February 18, termed the suspension as a betrayal of the pensioners by the leadership of NUR. He said their grievance against the NUR leadership was that the Federal Government was yet to approve the N1.7 billion owed pensioners as arrears. Shofunmade explained that pensioners could, therefore, not understand the rationale for calling off the strike, insisting that they would not relent until government released the money meant for the  payment of their pension arrears.

Perhaps, the strike action which may linger on for too long is the one embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, since December 30, last year. They were later joined by the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, SSANU.  The ASUU’s grouse with the Federal Government is its failure to implement an earlier agreement jointly signed by both parties on June 30, 2001 . ASUU, for now is insisting that the agreement  it entered into  with  the Federal Government be implemented before university teachers would return to the classrooms. Part of the agreement was that no member of the union should be victimised for participating in the last ASUU strike. The association is also insisting that the Federal Government was yet to fully implement other  agreements relating to university funding, university academic salary scale, UASS, assisting state universities through the Education Trust Fund, ETF, stabilisation of funds and granting of autonomy to the universities. The ASUU particularly wants the Federal Government to  recall all the 44 lecturers of the University of Ilorin , UNILORIN, who were sacked for participating in its nationwide strike.

Although Babalola Borishade, minister of education and Peter Okebukola, executive secretary of the National Universities Commission, NUC, have been  trying to persuade ASUU to call off the strike, their efforts appear not to be yielding dividend

Dipo Fashina, president  of ASUU blamed government for the prolongation of the strike. He said the meeting held between ASUU leaders and government representatives on January 23 did not yield the desired result because government came with a preconceived idea of what the striking teachers  wanted. According to him, government representatives felt that ASUU ought to call off the strike since an  agreement not yet implemented by government still existed.

But Fashina explained that what ASUU was asking for included the unconditional release of the sacked UNILORIN lecturers and gradual increase in budgetary allocation to education to the 26 percent mark. He said that rather than attempting to gradually increase the budgetary allocation to education as demanded by ASUU, the Federal Government had since 2001 been reducing it.

“The truth is that the Federal Government allocated seven percent to education in 2001, 5.8 percent in 2002, and 1.82 percent in 2003,” the ASUU president said.

Fashina noted that the strike was meant to protect the future generation from academic decadence. “If the situation in the universities is left unattended to for the next three years, all the big universities and the state universities will collapse,” he argued.

Borishade, however, claimed that at a peace meeting between ASUU and government representatives, the committee involved in the peace parley was asked to prepare a minimum requirement for government to put into the university system. He said that government was already implementing some of its  agreements with ASUU.

In furtherance of its efforts to make ASUU call off its strike, the NUC announced that it had released N2.5 billion to the federal universities. Okebukola said with the release of the money, ASUU had no justification in continuing the strike. He noted that government had taken steps towards meeting the minimum requirements of ASUU and urged the association to call off the strike.

But Biodun Onilude, the Ibadan zonal coordinator of ASUU said the  association would not call off the strike despite government’s release of the N2.5 billion since it does not represent any aspect of the agreement . He said: “What aspect of  the agreement does the N2.5 billion represent? Is it stabilisation fund, or capital grants; or restoration funds; or what? What ASUU is fighting for, is not about personal emoluments, but a structural change in the funding of universities, such that  universities would concentrate on research that would lead to the advancement of knowledge.”

ASUU appears determined to remain on strike until its 2001 agreements with the Federal Government are fully implemented. After its zonal meeting at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State on February 23,  ASUU resolved to continue the strike.

In a communiqué signed by Godwin Nsofor,  the Abuja zonal coordinator of ASUU, the association insisted that there was no going back on the strike until government was willing to honour its agreement. “For 18 months, the union tried to prevent the crisis, but  all efforts were to no avail. It is determined to stay for another 18 months or more on strike to ensure full implementation of the Federal Government/ASUU agreement of June 2001,” the association stated in its communique.

The harvest of strikes in Nigeria in recent times has become worrisome, especially as government  officials who ought to have promptly addressed the issues raised appear to be much more concerned with their current electioneering campaigns.
dditional reports by Annette Edo, Tosin Omoniyi and Alex Mabayoje.

Newswatch Volume 37 No. 9, March 10, 2003

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