… Analyst says FG beginning to respond to economic challenges
President Bola Tinubu may have more headaches to contend with in the days and weeks ahead as dark clouds of further strikes and protests by stakeholder groups loom over the horizon.
This is coming on the heels of the recent 10-day #EndBadGovernance organised by the Take-It-Back Movement and a raft of civil society organisations, which saw thousands of Nigerians taking to streets across the country to rail against a pervasive economic hardship.
It is also coming not long after the long-drawn battle over a new national minimum wage between the Federal Government and Organised Labour came to an amicable resolution, with both parties agreeing to a new wage of N70,000.
The Nigerian Observer’s check showed that three major labour and civil society groups have recently served notice of protests and strikes, barring clear and positive responses from the Federal Government to meet their demands.
The groups on the brink of face-offs with government include the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), irked by purported wrongful allegations of terrorism finance made by the police against its president, Joe Ajaero; the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which is demanding better funding for public universities and scaled-up remuneration for academic staff, and the organisers of the #EndBadGovernance protest.
The main organisers of the #EndBadGovernance protest, the Take-It-Back Movement, say they are planning to stage a follow-up nationwide demonstration beginning October 1 because, according to them, the Federal Government did not meet any of the demands that triggered the 10-day nationwide protests which took place August 1-10.
“We call it Fearless in October — the follow-up to the August protest,” Director of Mobilisation, Take-It-Back Movement, Damilare Adenola, told TheCable on Tuesday.
“We decided to follow up the protest since Tinubu’s administration has proven adamant and is yet to accede to even one of our demands as stated in our charter of demands.
“We have come to the realisation that protest is the only language that many despotic African leaders understand. That is why we decided to mobilise for another nationwide demonstration scheduled for October 1 till infinitum,” he said.
A protest demand document by the groups urged the government to address hunger in the land, address rising cost of living, combat insecurity, reduce waste in the Executive and the National Assembly, and release all currently-imprisoned #EndSARS protesters.
The groups are also asking for the protection of all farms and farmers, declaration of a state of emergency on education, institution of electoral reforms, establishment of a living wage and amendment of the Constitution to allow for referendums.
On its part, Organised Labour is threatening to call an indefinite nationwide strike if anything happens to the NLC president, Ajaero.
Ajaero was invited by the police on Monday over allegations bordering on “terrorism financing”. He, however, picked Wednesday, August 29 to honour the invitation and communicated the date to the Inspector General of Police via a letter from his lawyers, Falana and Falana Chambers.
But in a communique issued after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Tuesday, Deputy President of the NLC, Ado Kabiru Sani, said NEC agreed that Ajaero should honour the police invitation and asked the nation’s workforce to be on standby for further directives should the police take it further.
“If anything happens to the President of the Congress or any other leader of the Congress in furtherance of these tendentious allegations by the State, NEC puts all its affiliates and state councils to proceed on indefinite nationwide strike action by 12:00 midnight today (Tuesday),” Sani said.
“The NEC calls on all civil society allies and the general populace to stand in solidarity with the Nigeria Labour Congress in this critical moment.
“The fight against injustice and oppression is a collective one, and we urge all Nigerians to rise in defence of our shared democratic values,” he said.
Similarly, the National Executive Council of ASUU last weekend gave the Federal Government a 21-day ultimatum to meet its outstanding demands or lecturers would go on strike.
Further speaking on Wednesday at a press briefing at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia State, ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, insisted that lecturers would be forced to embark on another strike except the Federal Government met their demands before the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum.
At the Wednesday press briefing in Abia State, Osodeke highlighted the contentious issues to include “emergency revitalisation fund of public universities; payment of outstanding earned academic allowances; and release of withheld salaries, promotion arrears, and third-party deductions of our members”.
In the meantime, some analysts have been crediting President Tinubu with recently responding to Nigeria’s economic challenges with more transparent economic data releases and accelerating policy reforms.
Renowned economist, Bismarck Rewane, last week said that in the aftermath of the #EndBadGovernance protests, the Federal Government is now accelerating its efforts to ensure that policy changes have a positive and meaningful impact on the people’s welfare.
Speaking at his monthly presentation at the Lagos Business School (LBS) Breakfast Session, titled “Cost of Living Protest: Was It Politically Motivated or Hunger Induced?”, Rewane identified the Federal Government’s stimulus package, minimum wage, stabilisation measures and duty waiver on staples among the short-term measures that could ameliorate the harshness of the high cost of living in the country.
He observed that the impact of import duty waiver on essential commodities would definitely taper prices and have a knock-on effect on the costs of production, adding that the naira has steadied in the forex market and is beginning to appreciate marginally.
“The APC-led government faced a baptism of fire. As predicted, the faltering economy is the underbelly of the party. The leadership (of APC) has now come to terms with reality and is responding positively,” Rewane said.
“The true position is now being laid bare. Economic data is now being released more frequently with greater integrity. Conciliatory moves are being made across the aisle,” he said.
He said that the recent National Council of State meeting and the Patriot Group visit to President Tinubu were evidence that the government was reaching out and deepening its consultations with relevant stakeholders.
“The good news is that damage control is beginning to work and there is a strong possibility of leadership changes at the management level,” he said.
