NLC’s strike. Sabotage or not?

My latest OpEd was published in The Cable.

In the wee hours of Monday, the national grid was shut down not by the inexplicable equipment failure that has happened fairly regularly over the last few years but by brutal tactics that were deliberately employed. At 0115 hours, operators in the Benin Transmission Operator were forcibly driven away from the control room, and those who resisted were met with violence. Some were beaten, while others were wounded in the course of being forced out of the control room without any form of supervision or control. The Benin Area Control Centre was subsequently shut down.

Other transmission substations, including Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba, and Osogbo, were also shut down. At 0323 hours, the authorities attempted to recover the grid using the Shiroro Substation to feed the transmission lines supplying bulk electricity to the Katampe Transmission Substation. However, the recovery efforts were met with resistance, leaving the country in the dark.

It was only when the dust settled that the true extent of the sabotage became clear to the general public. The perpetrators were none other than the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Their actions were a blatant disregard for the well-being of the country and a clear demonstration of their willingness to use violence and intimidation to achieve their goals. The NLC’s demands for an unreasonable wage increase had been met with resistance from the government, and they decided that the best way to force a pay rise for their members was to violently shut down the country’s economy to force the government to accede to their demands.

Are the NLC’s tactics OK?

Some Nigerians have acted under the impression that the NLC is fighting for all Nigerians, but the NLC’s demands are primarily focused on securing higher wages for federal civil servants, who represent less than 1% of the workforce. In 2022 and 2023, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) collected record amounts of ₦10.1 trillion and ₦12.4 trillion as tax revenue for the entire federation. Given that the budget for 2024 is ₦27 trillion, allocating nearly 20% of the budget to a group that constitutes less than 1% of the workforce raises concerns about the efficiency and impact of such expenditures. In an environment where the prices of household items have doubled over the last year, the general public should consider the potential impact of the wage increase on inflation and poverty rates for most Nigerians before supporting the NLC’s cause and methods.