The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) 5-day warning strike in Kaduna commenced on Monday, May 17, 2021- it was a good outing for the labour and its supporters.
Labour was able to rally round all its affiliates and also drew support from many residents of Kaduna. NLC’s action was meant to compel Governor Nasir El-Rufai to reverse the recent mass sack of civil servants.
NLC said El-Rufai has retrenched 6,000 workers. It also claimed that Mallam has not paid April salaries for some 20,000 workers- this convinced other labour unions to join the strike, at least 14 affiliated unions of the NLC joined procession of the strike, which started from the NLC secretariat in Kaduna at 7 am, chanted solidarity songs, displaying placards with various inscriptions.
Many Kaduna residents supported NLC because they believe Mallam is killing small businesses and destroying markets and corner shops including houses without providing alternatives and a listening ear.
The Kaduna state government said it is retrenching workers based on redundancy, sickness, disciplinary matters and those that have reached retirement age, 90% of Kaduna’s FACC allocation goes to workers, and its infrastructure development is an urban renewal project – these are valid points.
Day 1 of the NLC strike was a success – they shut down electricity, water, banks, motor parks, filling stations, government and private offices, all supermarkets and markets- but the common people suffered. Kaduna’s N2 trillion economy was hit by the strike and billions of naira have been lost to the grounding of businesses in the state.
Subsequent days may be hard for the Kaduna people, especially city dwellers, if a truce is not reached. Though, Governor El-Rufa’I has remained defiant – he said: “The Kaduna state government affirms that the conditions that compel it to rightsize are not altered by the NLC’s campaign of economic and social sabotage. The NLC showed in 2017 that it has no interest in public welfare, going violent over 21,780 failed teachers who Kaduna state government replaced with 25,000.”
On the other hand, Kaduna state has never witnessed massive infrastructure development like is being done now under Governor El-Rufai. However, The irony is, come 2023, despite the massive development witnessed during Governor El-Rufai, many residents of Kaduna would be wary of whoever is presented by El-Rufa’i as a governorship candidate – the candidate will simply be on the defensive, while the opposition would be on a solid offensive. The point of debate would be: ‘The masses were not in the equation of the massive infrastructure development’. However, only time will tell as political trends are always changing.
Zayyad I. Muhammad,
Abuja, 08036070980,
