IANA Blog- May 2022

Happy May,

For those that don’t know, May 1st was International Labor Day aka International Workers Day, which is the celebration of laborers and the working class. One of my friends, who is an organizer in Berkeley, invited me to this special May 1st gathering, showing a movie from the 1980s, Matewan, which focused on uniting labor workers (Black, White, Italian) in America, and always talked about how labor unions are important. Being that it’s a national holiday, it’s celebrated around the world and it is especially celebrated in Africa. It’s definitely celebrated in Nigeria. Every May 1st, Nigerians gather while the President of the Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) addresses workers.

Since May 1st was International Labor Day, I thought we could talk about the current situation of the labor unions/workers of Nigeria.

The Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC) is an umbrella organization for labor/trade unions in Nigeria. The NLC was founded in December of 1978, as a merger of four different organizations (the Nigeria Trade Union Congress, the Labor Unity Front, the United Labor Congress, and the Nigeria Workers Council). The NLC also has had conflicts with the Nigerian military regime, especially in 1988 going up against General Ibrahim Babangida. They also had conflicts with the government, during the later years. In 2003, the NLC established the National Women Commision, which is the women's wing of the NLC. The women’s wing engages in protests and rallies.

Currently, the NLC have been participating in protests and rallies. They held a Workers Day rally on May 2nd, via SaharaReporters. They also protested against Buhari after the government failed to reach a deal with the public university lecturers of the Academic Staff Union of Universities. 

Unfortunately from what I see in social media, I see that the people of Nigeria are not impressed with the recent actions of the NLC. I saw a video on Twitter about how the NLC shut down Kaduna over Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai. Human rights activist Omoyele Sowore states that he wishes the NLC shut down all of Nigeria over Buhari. I also saw Twitter user Nimah A., tweet about how she does not want them involved in the EndSARS Movement, in fear that they will hijack it. I also have seen tweets of others saying that the NLC should get involved with the Academic Staff Union of Universities strike. 

As mentioned before, the people of Nigeria are not impressed with the recent actions of NLC, as they are the main labor union in Nigeria and from what I’m seeing, I shouldn’t be either and the workers deserve better.

Link to video- https://twitter.com/YeleSowore/status/1394263628552024067https://twitter.com/YeleSowore/status/1394263628552024067

Link to Nimah A tweet- https://twitter.com/MsNemah/status/1315005181629804546