AS organised labour marched yesterday in celebration of Workers’ Day, top on the agenda was the implementation of the N18, 000 minimum wage that some States claim they cannot pay. Labour has lamented the impoverishment of workers over the years. It has done little else.
A more pressing issue that should interest labour is the rate of job losses. Governments may be launching job creation schemes, but the reality is that hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost annually, including government ones.
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, last February said the industry lost more than 1.8 million jobs between 2002 and 2008. The yearly average for the seven years is more than 257,000jobs. MAN’s membership operational audit in January 2010 revealed that 834 manufacturing companies shut down in 2009. These figures are for manufacturing alone.
Former United Nations Development Programme economist Dr. Warea Thomas gives the matter better perspective. “The fact is that when a company stops operation, the workers there become the frontline victims. If 834 firms were officially given by MAN to have shut shop in 2009, it is easy to speculate that not less than 83,400 jobs were lost in that year alone, if we assume that they were all medium-size manufacturing firms, with each having 100 workers.”
According to MAN, “A survey of about 300 manufacturing companies carried out by MAN on direct employment generation from the manufacturing sector showed that in 2001 alone, 2,752,832 people were employed by the Nigerian manufacturing sector.
“In 2002, the figure rose to 2,841,083. This figure reduced to 1,026,305 in 2008 as a result of some challenges inhibiting its growth. Of all kinds of economic activities, the manufacturing activity is reputed to have the highest multiplier effect on indirect employment generation, both in the backward and forward integration process along the supply chain.”
The decline in manufacturing has left millions unemployed. The inability of those people to remain in economic activities as workers and consumers, contribute to the increase in poverty levels.
“In the heyday of manufacturing in Nigeria (1978–1980), the national poverty level was 28.17 per cent. With the declining roles of manufacturing, the poverty level gets increasing and it got to a peak of 70.9 per cent in 2006,” the MAN document noted.
Workers are worried about their jobs. The ageing ones also have concerns about their retirement benefits. In an economy buffeted by vast infrastructural challenges, increasing cost of production and cheaper imports endanger the chances of creating new jobs.
New investments in public power supply, roads, railways, seaports which are necessary to make manufacturing more profitable and able to create more jobs are inadequate.
The growing unemployment among youth, in some instances years after higher education, cannot be addressed without huge manufacturing bases that will start off the multiplier effects the economy requires.
Labour has a contribution to make in these other than lamenting the fate of workers. It should start engaging governments strategically at policy-making stages to influence decisions that will generate more jobs.
vanguardngr.com/2011/05/they-labour-they-lament/
Peter Kalio Gift 2 days ago
ReplyDeleteAgreement is agreement, they ve to be paid and there is urgent need for job creation. For the era of new governance.
Type your comment here. Show me a state that claims it cannot pay the minimum wage, n i will show u how much a bloody local govt chairman,his wife, members of state assembly n governors take home for doin notin
ReplyDeletePatrick Agbobu 2 days ago
ReplyDeleteWhat is Nigeria labour Congress celebrating? Is it that the government say that the Nigeria economy is growing and expanding very rapidly, yet it is creating no jobs, but rather destroying the very few bellow the bread line level jobs? Are they celebrating the numerous, able bodied unemployed persons, daily roaming the uncared for streets in Nigeria? Is it unavailability of electricity and power for Nigerians? Are they celebrating the insecurity of lives and properties, that is very rampant in Nigeria? Are they celebrating the calous official corruptions, by politicians and public officers in Nigeria, especially the looting and stealing of public funds? Are they celebrating the terrible roads that are unneccessirily killing Nigerians? Are they celebrating the daily kidnappings. the assasinations and murders of Nigerians? Is it the reckless and obscene salaries and wages the Senators, members of the House of representatives, all legislative houses and all political office holders pay themselves, that they are celebrating? The list goes on and on. They should be lamenting, for allowing these shameless persons to get away with murder. Nigerian workers can be paid decent wages and salaries, if the TUC can, bring these terrible heartless Nigerians, that are milking Nigeria dry. to give proper account for all the money they are collecting sorry stealing. 18,000. oo minimum wage my foot. This is only half of one%, of what these good for nothing, do nothing so called politicians and public officers collect sorry steal from us.
abesona 2 days ago
ReplyDeleteType your comment here.speaking economically the problem of Nigeria is no issue inasmuch as all the developmental parameters to explode are beneath our soils. What we need is to diversify our economy and move away from total dependence on oil. critical factor to consider is stabilizing the country politically,we need a leader and not a ruler to understand some key macroeconomic issues. Understanding the bi-results of opening this economy and making it take its place among comity of nations is very easy.What we need is a proactive measure and not seminars that roles all the white papers repors under the carpet. Solving electricity alone throught privatisation(solely) can create a minimum of 10million jobs this year. Our population makes us to be the biggest market in AFRICA. Think of the multiplier effects interm of foreign investment. whatabout te agricultural sector power will open like tsunami; small-scale businesses for young enterprenuers.
Nigerians are nobles. Little we ask for and non we get. we are eager and watching GOODLUCK cause we came out en-masse to vote him.
nick 2 days ago in reply to abesona
ReplyDeleteThank you my brother cos you just uncovered most of the problems facing the country we both so much love.I want to cease this opportunity to speak to our able president Dr.GEJ and our newly elected governors about the urgent need to revive our agricultural sector and ailing industries.During my last visit to Europe i saw loads of solar cars and they are investing heavily in the production of bio-fuels and gas and they are not joking about this,which calls for a question mark in our total dependance on oil.Concerning our ailing industeries,govt dont need to raise all these monies the can bring in investors that will cleanup all these sites that has been lying fallow for ages and in turn give jobs to the youths.I dont know much about other states like in imo for an example we have the modern ceramics,avutu poultry,standard shoe industry just to mention a few.Another way we can revive our agricultural sector is by making it attractive to they youths exactly the same way our politicians made our public offices so much so attractive by encouraging young youths to study agric. related courses in the university by reducing drastically the fees or making it almost tuition free cos most Nigerians students will prefer to go for other courses they think is more lucrative in the Nigerian context which are not cos they think the fees are almost the same and also there should be a kind of soft loans to these graduates that would like to engage in farming after the have done with their studies.FED.Govt. should also make sure that these agricultural materials they subsidies to the farmers through the state governors get to the targeted farmers cos during the Achike Udenwa administration in imo state when fertilizers that was meant for farmers in Imo state was bought by one person and stored in his warehouse while the buyer waited for the next farming season and sold it back to the farmers at exorbitant prices.