By Comrade Roy Oribhabor
UNTIL his foray into the nation’s political space, the name Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole rang bells only in labour activism. He was almost worshipped for his preachment of welfarism for workers and advocacy for a living wage for them when he held sway as two-term national president of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) between 1999 and 2007.
The Iyamho, Edo State-born labour leader bestowed the labour movement with an almost larger than life carriage and was equally feared by government in states and even at the centre. It can be argued that he got the governorship of Edo State as a result of his antecedents as a union leader.
However, what he stood for in the labour movement vis a vis good pay for workers and other niceties as well as good conditions of service for workers almost became doubtful and controvertible when he eventually succeeded Chief Lucky Igbinedion as the third executive governor of the southern state from 2008 to 2016.
As Edo State governor, Oshiomhole will is still remembered for his many brushes with various labour interest groups in the state.
His tenure was summarized by almost weekly grounding of commercial activities in Benin, with placard carrying workers in their thousands dressed in black, obstructing traffic flow within the metropolis in protest of several months of unpaid salaries and allowances. Pensioners who had meritoriously served the state where not spared in this fiendish treatment, as many of them reportedly died while marching in request for the pensions and gratuities, which they had worked for within the peak years of their lives. He did not only owe workers with reckless abandon, but threatened through his street lieutenants to clamp down on anyone who dared to speak against his antics.
While the health sector was left in shambles, health workers suffered barbaric neglect with many being impoverished and virtually begging the ‘people’s comrade’ for their due wages. In 2012 alone, more than 1,200 health workers were unceremoniously sacked for daring to protest against this diabolic manhandling. It is therefore embarrassing that this same man made the front pages of newspapers declaring his usual deceptive support and encouragement to front line health workers, applauding their contributions to the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Specifically, on October 29, 2014, Edo State workers under the umbrella of Coalition of Unions of Edo State Owned Tertiary Institutions, disrupted activities at the Government House, protesting non- payment of over 10 months salaries and poor condition of service. The angry workers in large numbers, dressed in black attires, wailed and begged for immediate payment of 16 months’ salary arrears said to have been approved between July 2009 and October 2010, unpaid promotion arrears, stoppage of use of Trust Fund/ Cooperative monies for the running of the institutions, dilapidated infrastructures and non- provision of funds for immediate accreditation of courses. The plea never got the attention of the comrade, rather he ordered the sack of recalcitrant staff members.
On July 1, 2015, it was reported that the NLC in Edo State threatened to go on strike, if the state government refused to pay workers’ salaries. This was after thousands of aggrieved local government employees being owed by the state government for more than eight months marched to the union’s state secretariat along James Watts Street, off Mission Road in Benin City, the state capital to make their voices heard. Solidarity chants and placards with inscriptions such as “We are slaves in our father’s land; denying us our salaries is evil; our salary is our right”, became the face of attraction for the nation’s heartbeat.
Also, on August 03, 2016, from Five junction to Ring Road before making their way to Sapele road, it was another batch of employees of the 18 local government councils of the state, who grounded traffic for several hours in protest of over 20 months of unpaid salaries. Workers of the Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) were not left out as they had on November 1, 2016 staged a protest over the non-payment of their salary arrears spanning over five months by the Oshiomhole-led state government.
It is then only hypocritical that Oshiomhole, having failed workers in Edo State as governor could be quoted saying that owing of workers is criminal. He was quoted saying: “My views are clear, that payment of wages is not an act of kindness for an employer to pay the employees’ wages at the end of the month… Even the Holy Bible says that the labourer is entitled to his/her wages.” Very recently, the media swirled with his lip service commendation of the intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bankers Committee on the reported plan by a top bank to retrench workers.
The people of Edo State are yet to forgive the former unionist for publicly dehumanizing and berating a widow who engaged in street trading and ordering that her plantain be impounded. One begins to wonder what sort of a leader forgets his humble beginning because he has gotten power.
When President Goodluck Jonathan hiked the fuel price in 2012, Oshiomhole was silent all through the strike, but resurfaced as an appointee to negotiate on the side of government with the then Labour President and the TUC.
Oribhabor, a social commentator and immediate past Chairman, Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Edo State, writes from Benin City