Delivering a paper to participants of Senior Executive Course 36 at the National Institute For Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, near Jos, plateau state over the weekend, Oyeyemi stated that it is worrisome and of grave national concern, that about sixty percent of all industrial disputes in the country resulted into industrial actions.
This, he posited, could be attributed to failure of the relevant agencies and stakeholders to proffer amicable and proactive solutions that could have averted the disputes.
“It would be recalled that over the years, industrial actions in Nigeria have greatly hampered performance and undermined productivity, thus preventing the expected socio-economic development from taking place,” he stated
“This development has become the bane of the public sector in Nigeria, and has made it difficult for successive governments to implement laudable policies and programmes that could have raised the standard of living of the citizens with consequent negative effects on the private sector.
“Thus the challenge to ensuring industrial harmony and national development remains how to create a socio-economic environment that encourages productivity for a highly consumptive population like ours by a political system that deliberately protects public exploitation by employers at the same time ensuring that workers remain committed to production, while labour unions promote peaceful resolution of industrial disputes,” he further stated
Giving insight into the nature of labour crises that have been witnessed in Nigeria from 1960 till date, Corps Marshal Oyeyemi averred that labour relations in the country has been characterized by industrial disputes, crises, and unrest. He further stresses that one of the major features of industrial experiences in the country, whether in the public or private sector has been that of strikes, lockouts, picketing, sit-downs, work to rule and demonstrations.
“This situation has made many to describe the relationship of organized labour and government agencies as that of “cat and mouse,” he stated.
“There have been consistent disruptions in all spheres of Nigerian life: from the educational to power sector, with the strike action by the Doctors who are protesting against non-implementation of agreement reached with government being the most recent case.
“This is coming after the last prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and that of the Polytechnics and Colleges of Education over alleged failure of government and its agencies to honour agreement reached by both parties,” he stated.
These developments and the frequency at which industrial unrest are witnessed in the in the country, he said, “give course for concern as to the effectiveness of the dispute resolution mechanism of the system.”
While giving analysis of the cost implications of labour unrest witnessed in the country over the years in relation to productivity, Corps Marshal Oyeyemi pointed out that Nigeria, as a labour-intensive economy has according to an estimate made by the World Fact Book 2009, 50.13million workers, which made her the largest workforce in Africa that is, “underutilized and unutilized with high level of redundancy and dependency ratio.”
“This has led to an unsatisfactory economic performance as evident in the huge decline in GDP per worker over 8 years with a 1.2 per cent productivity index,” he stated.
After enumerating measures taken by some countries of the world to curtail labour unrest, in order to avert what he termed, “social, economic, legal and political effects of strikes,” he stressed that for a developing country like Nigeria struggling to become one of the 20 largest economies in the world by 2020, unless concrete steps are taken by relevant stakeholders to create harmonious industrial environment for the country, the nation’s quest for national development may remain a mirage.
“As a necessary tool of productivity and industrial harmony, labour is an important element of national development. Therefore every efforts must be made by the relevant agencies and stakeholders to ensure that at all times, actions that could trigger industrial disputes and their non peaceful resolutions that could lead to strikes are avoided,” he stressed.
In further making case for sustained dialogue between employers and labour unions, Oyeyemi called for full utilisation of necessary political tools to ensure that peaceful industrial environment prevail in the country at all times..
“An arbitration system that builds and sustains the necessary confidence between the workers and employers, and one that is capable of resolving disputes without allowing their degeneration to strikes must be made functional,” he proffered.
“A robust communication strategy that promotes understanding between the contending forces and reduces frictions between management and labour unions to avoid break down of communication should be encouraged.
“All hands must be on deck to ensure that under any circumstances, negotiation and dialogue must not be allowed to collapse between the employers and labour unions. And workers must deliberately be made active participants in decision making mechanism to sustain their confidence in the system so that cordial relationship could be enhanced in the system,” Corps Marshal Oyeyemi further stated.
The lecture which had as its theme, “Industrial Relations, Labour Productivity and National Development in Nigeria,” was attended by course participants drawn from the public and private sector as well as the Armed Forces, Police and paramilitary agencies.
The Nigerian Institute For Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) was established by the Federal Government as an elite institution where Senior Executives in public and private sectors undergo one year course in policy formulation and strategic studies.
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