Abia State And A Labour Limbo -By Kene Obiezu

  The factors that can go into improving the quality of life and raising the standard of living of people are often many and varied. In every country that has managed to get its acts together and do right by its citizens, there necessarily came a point in the course of its journey when it consciously decided on what it wanted and was unwavering in pointing out the path that would take it to the place it wanted to go.

 Once such a path was identified, it was towed unrelentingly and unremittingly. Along that path, the welfare of citizens was put above everything else as sound economics trumped   perverse politics in a bid to make citizens happy.

 Of the many factors that go into improving the quality of life of people anywhere, decent and dignified employment with fair wages come near the top of the pile. For people to be happy, for people to lead satisfied and satisfactory lives, for people to come anywhere close to living the kind of lives they envision for themselves and their families, decent jobs are an irreducible requirement.

When people are able engage their faculties by working and taking home remuneration, they consider fair enough, most of their satisfaction needs are met.

This invariably means that a government that fails to secure the labour and labour conditions of its those who work for it both by the instruments of sound legal framework and compliance with    global best practices in labour can never be said to have done well as a government.

Abia State and alabour limbo

The Nigerian Labour Congress(NLC) recently raised an alarm over what it described as the shocking conditions under which its members work in Abia State while accusing the State Government of failing to implement the national minimum wage  and  refusing to pay workers as at when due.

 As recently disclosed by Ayuba Wabba, the NLC President, judges and doctors in the state  are being owed over   between 12 to 18 months of unpaid salaries.

 It was not the first time the ‘God`s Own State’ would be put under the microscope for its dubious notoriety as one of those poorly run states where the rights of workers are brazenly disregarded. Over the years, those who have been waiting for the state government led by Onyechi Ikpeazu to improve the conditions of workers in the state have been made to wait in vain.

 Nigeria`s decline as a country where people can lead satisfactory lives is marked by the fact that many of those who work in the country are simply dissatisfied with the conditions under which thy work  and as a result have to put up with the adverse effects of such conditions and the deleterious effect their dissatisfaction is having on their productivity.

 How can family men and women who work their socks off under what should be otherwise straightforward terms and conditions of employment be made to go for months without their wages? With what are they expected to feed their often large families?

 Is it not scandalous that in this time, those who call the shots in the government have been taking home the full extent of their benefits on a monthly and sometimes even on a weekly basis?

 Is it not grave injustice that people who have been working for months are being owed their salaries for just as long   while those who do far less in comparison do not have to know the agony that  unpaid wages induce because they have never simply because they are the ones who hold the yam and the knife?

In terms of respecting the rights of workers, Nigeria still has a frighteningly long way to go.  At this juncture, the most disturbing development so many policymakers in the country who are extremely unwilling to embark on what is a most necessary journey.

Kene Obiezu,

Twitter: @kenobiezu