8 years between Buhari and the Workers: Pressure is more than praise, by Ahmed Ilallah
8 years between Buhari and the Workers: Pressure is more than praise, by Ahmed Ilallah
There are only a few days left until the Buhari administration's party for its staff ends.
Given how things have gone between the Buhari government and the Workers during this time, is there anything to praise?
Even though they are a small part of Nigeria's population, labor activists and workers' groups make up less than 30% of the country's workers.
There are millions of hardworking workers in small businesses and wealthy people where they live and work, but they are never asked for help or answers.
Aside from the protests against the government over overtime and the removal of fuel subsidies, pay raises are the biggest disagreement between workers and the Buhari administration.
Some workers' salaries were changed in a new way that was set up by the administration. This did not help. Before raising the wage from 18,000 to 30,000, Buhari's government waited more than three years. The employees are not happy.
Even the government, experts, and trade unions are not sure that the wage increase will not be in line with the pressure on the economy and inflation in Nigeria.
Because of this way of thinking, the government has made a way for some of its employees to get paid more.
But since university teachers and staff have been on strike for the past eight months, this dispute is still going on and the court is still thinking about it. They haven't been paid by Buhari's government for the past eight months.
Even the groups of people who work in the health and electricity businesses talk to the government about promises it hasn't kept.
Even the leaders of ASUU said that there had never been a government that didn't know how important its workers were. Every time the government made a deal with a trade union, the union leaders blamed the government for not keeping its promises.
There is also no discussion of the many other workers who don't work for the government but also face problems like low pay, being fired for no reason, and other wrongs.
This government has made some employees' perks better and scrapped plans to end fuel subsidies, but this isn't enough to make Nigerian workers happy about their problems.
Both this government and the other governments care about the well-being of their people.
✒✒✒Aminu Namu 9JABLOGGIST