By Ochereome Nnanna
WHEN Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s victory at the 2007 governorship poll was restored by the Benin Zone of the Court of Appeal on November 11, 2008, one of the questions that excited media reporters asked him was how he would react when workers went on strike under his administration. “I will join the strike”, was his humorous reply.

The question was well placed because Oshiomhole has gone down as one of the most effective and fearless Labour leaders ever produced in this country.

He was the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, throughout the eight years of General Olusegun Obasanjo’s militarised democratic rule chiefly characterised by frequent and arbitrary fuel price hikes. With the return of democracy, many of the civil society groups that had stood against military impunity had gone for their 49 winks.

Oshiomhole’s NLC became the flagship of Labour’s intrepid struggles to stem the Obasanjo regime’s unfeeling, anti-people economic measures.

It was during that period that Labour won the struggle to adjust the national minimum wage to N7,500 (or N5,000 in some states), up from N1,500 in some cases. Oshiomhole became so popular with the Nigerian “common man” that as far as strike actions (or sit-at-home, civil disobedience) were concerned his words were “law”.

He once led an “invasion” of Aso Villa by Labour leaders for a negotiation, and Obasanjo was so distraught that he stormed out of one of the meetings. On one of those Labour stand-offs, Obasanjo reportedly called him into his office and threatened to “do something illegal” to him if he would not back off from calling out the Nigerian people against his government.

An opportunity arose recently to test if Oshiomhole, as the Governor of Edo State, would walk his proverbial talk. The NLC, under the leadership of his successor, Comrade Adbulwahid Omar, was up in arms against the federal and state governments over their foot-dragging on the payment of the N18,000 national minimum wage, which was consecrated into law by presidential assent of its Act on March 16, 2011.

Not only did Oshiomhole play leading roles as a mediator between Labour and the government in the negotiations and efforts to prevent the recent warning strike, he proactively became the first governor to offer to pay the minimum wage of N18,000.34k on June 12 to take effect from June 1, 2011 to Edo workers.

This gesture, coming from Edo State that earns the least amount of money from oil revenue among the nine Niger Delta states (when their peers in oil giant states like Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta were still facing stiff resistance from their governors) was evidence that Oshiomhole had not abandoned the ideal he fought for simply because he had changed sides from Labour leader to elected governor.

It came as a matter of considerable surprise when we learnt from the same Edo State that union leaders were spoiling for another strike, (this time, a “sympathy” strike). According to the story, teachers in the state, on learning of the new minimum wage awarded to civil servants, decided that they, too, must benefit from an enhanced pay package.

Teachers are on a separate Teachers Salary Scale (TSS) in Edo, which puts the salary of the lowest paid teacher in the state at N33,000 per month. Incidentally, this figure was agreed under Oshiomhole’s regime when teachers insisted they must be paid better than mainstream civil servants, and it was implemented while other workers still earned N7,500 monthly.

When teachers wanted a further adjustment of their TSS as a result of the new minimum wage implementation, Oshiomhole did not object, but rather threw his doors open for negotiation. Pronto, the Edo State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers served a strike notice. And what do you know; the same state workers who are enjoying their second month on the new minimum wage opted to join the teachers in what they described as “sympathy strike”!

That was not all. They gave other spurious, non-Labour related conditionalities to return to work. Number one was that the state government must grant them a three-month tax holiday to enable them savour the new minimum wage.

Number two was their grouse at Value Added Tax deductions from Internally Generated Revenue of local government councils by the federal agencies. Finally was a complaint that the governance at the local government level must be “democratised”.

Apart from the fact that some of these demands are not within the powers of the state government to grant, they do not appear like products of serious unionism. For instance, where would the state get money to pay for other services if the three-month tax holiday was allowed?

Many are even wondering whether the current pace of social development in the state would not be slowed down with this jumbo increment of the salaries of government workers that amount to less than 10 per cent the entire populace.

Even if the Governor supports the stoppage of VAT deductions, what can he really do about it, as it is a policy that affects all parts of the federation?

It was really difficult to reason with the Edo workers union leaders over those absurd demands. That was total abuse of union power. One was attracted to this matter because of its dangerous potential to rub off on unions in other parts of the country. The Edo State Government accused the union leaders of allowing themselves to be infiltrated by opposition politicians. With the state getting ready for governorship elections, and the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, supporting the strike action, who knows?

Happily, sanity quickly prevailed when, on Monday, August 8, 2011, the strike was called off, just when the state government was about to begin what they described as “counter-actions”.

The power of unions not just lie in their ability to withdraw their services in form of strikes, but it also emanates from public support. For the public support to come forth the action must be seen as credible, excusable and tenable. The national minimum wage struggle is fully supported, but the Edo union leaders did not make a good case for their actions.

Unpopular strikes tend to collapse from inside, and union leaders who know their salt will always avoid such disastrous outings.

That was what irresponsible unionism exposed the Edo workers’ union to.