- MARKING MAY DAY, SPARING A THOUGHT FOR FARMERS
(An editorial of THE NIGERIA STANDARD newspaper, Wednesday, May 1, 2024)
This year’s Workers’ Day is coming at a time of great economic turmoil in Nigeria. Those who toil day and night to produce the goods and services that sustain our lives are bearing the greatest brunt.
Coincidentally, the 2024 event is happening as the federal and most sub-national governments are planning to celebrate their first year in office. The near-convergence of both occasions affords workers, the political elite and the citizenry the opportunity to collectively assess the current state of our nation.
Although the Naira has continued to make unprecedented gains against the US Dollar, Nigerians are yet to see or feel the impact.
With inflation at an all-time high (31.70%) and unemployment hitting the ceiling (at 5%) in the third quarter of 2023, up from 4.2% in the second quarter, the suffering of Nigerians is becoming almost unbearable.
These exert undue pressure on the Spartan minimum wage the few workers in the labour market draw. It was last reviewed on September 1, 2023, since 2019. Economic analysts posit that the much-vaunted gains from the naira’s recovery are being eroded even before they become manifest.
But President Tinubu’s economic team remains upbeat, insisting that the positive outcomes of this and other economic policies (such as the removal of petrol subsidy and hike in electricity tariff) would come gradually.
Nevertheless, some cynics and experts alike say the naira’s rebound cannot be sustained as it is caused by the manipulation of the currency to deceive citizens that the government is succeeding where their predecessors failed.
Whatever the case, Nigerian workers yearn for a robust wage that would meet their basic needs and improve the quality of their lives. Therefore, the new minimum wage must reflect the prevailing double digit inflationary trend which has seen food prices, the costs of transportation, education, health care, and more, continue to soar.
It is widely believed that the Nigerian Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and their affiliates have not lived up to the expectations given the dire straits in which the country finds itself.
The perception is that the top echelons have merely barked without doing much biting as the Tinubu government continues to churn out policies that have significantly added to the misery of Nigerians.
Members hope that the stalled minimum wage negotiations would immediately resume with renewed vigour and commitment from both sides.
Today, it is also crucial to spare a thought for Nigerian farmers. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Nigeria has an estimated 34.5 million farmers, which is about 70% of the country’s labour force. About 80% of them engage in subsistence farming.
Regrettably, we forget this critical mass of Nigeria’s informal workforce in our May Day rituals.
It’s imperative to reflect on them because they are facing an existential threat of epic proportions. From the North East and North West down to the Middle Belt, farmers have become victims of banditry, kidnapping for ransom, herdsmen’s and Islamists’ terrorism, etc.
All of these have combined to force millions of them from their ancestral lands, most of which have been forcibly occupied – as has happened in parts of Plateau State.
According to the United Nations, there are about 2.1 million displaced persons in Benue State alone, most of them farmers. It is as a result of these widespread displacements and decimation of entire communities that the FAO has warned that about 14.4 million Nigerians currently face food crisis.
These farmers live from hand to mouth. But frenzied gangs impose illegal taxes and levies to allow them cultivate their lands and harvest their crops. These hapless citizens’ homelands have become ungoverned spaces left at the mercy of purveyors of violence.
As governments at all levels consider ameliorating the plight of workers, they must also make concerted efforts to solve the lingering security challenges threatening this critical pillar of our economy – farmers.
On the occasion of this May Day, THE NIGERIA STANDARD strongly emphasizes the importance of both the formal and informal sectors of the economy in all strategies to confront the prevailing economic and security challenges bedeviling Nigeria.
