MAY Day had its prehistoric roots in ancient Europe when it was a festival to mark the onset of summer. Its link to the workers movement had to do with the Haymarket riot on May 4, 1886 in Chicago, USA.

Workers had peacefully gathered to demand for an eight-hour working day, but some anarchists exploded a bomb which killed a number of police officers and demonstrators. The incident inspired stronger solidarities among organised labour groups in Communist and other countries in Europe and beyond.

While May 1 is celebrated as the International Workers Day, the United States marks Labour Day on September 5, to distance it from the anarchy that gave birth to it. Here in Nigeria, the Federal Government declares May Day a public holiday. But when it falls on a weekend as it did this year, the public holiday is honoured the following Monday.

This year’s May Day is coming as the world is gradually recovering from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the world is reeling from the Russian invasion of Ukraine which has grave impacts on food and energy security throughout the world. Nigeria is bracing for the full impact on our own food security following the warning by industrial food processing groups that there could be food scarcity as from June 2022.

This is bound to compound the food inflation rate which is currently at 17.2 per cent. Already, Nigerian workers and their counterparts in the informal sector are struggling to cope with low purchasing power. The N30,000 Nigerian minimum wage is among the lowest in the world, and yet many states and local governments have been unable to pay when due. Many states owe categories of workers for over one year, and pensioners have almost been forgotten.

This year’s May Day comes at a time when the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and other organised Labour groups are in a “war” mood. Labour has threatened to embark on a three-day nationwide warning strike in solidarity with other striking workers, particularly the tertiary education workers’ unions whose strikes are being ignored by the Federal Government after negotiations broke down. 

Meanwhile, the Ministers who are supposed to be brokering the strikes to enable our children go back to school are busy playing politics.

NLC’s campaign for workers to get ready with the Permanent Voter’s Cards for next year’s election is a limited solution since workers will still vote for candidates of their choice. Union leaders must be more committed to the workers’ struggle and eschew selfish pursuits in their interfaces with government.

We may have seen the very best that the Muhammadu Buhari government has to offer to workers. The search for a more result-oriented leadership is a task for all Nigerians, not just workers.

Vanguard News