Vocal labour activist, Comrade Joe Ajaero, was a delegate at the 2014 National Conference.

He is deputy president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC); president, United Labour Congress (ULC) and general secretary, National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE).

Ajaero, who was at the Niche Annual Lecture during the week spoke to Sunday Sun on sundry national issues, including the 2023 election, ASUU strike, and the Nigerian condition. Excerpt:

You were at the Niche lecture last Thursday, September 8, where the Hon. Minister for Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who delivered the Annual lecture said there is nothing to fear about the 2023 elections as nothing unusual is expected to happen…?

(Cuts in) Yes, I was at the lecture and my take is that I wouldn’t know actually the dimension or the tendency that the Hon. Minister could be classified into, either as a politician or as a Minister because you can’t isolate the Minister’s statement from his partisan disposition. But be that as it may, if it is a re-assurance that there will be security, that the votes will count and that the government in power that he represents will bow to the wish of the masses, the people of Nigeria, then that is re-assuring. But if is that, as it was in the beginning, as now, shall be or as people will say most of the time that nothing ‘dey happen,’ then there is every cause for us to look at that word with some level of suspicion.

Fashola’s argument is that when the election is drawing near that the people tend to hype political tension as if the country is going to break, but that at the end of the day, all will be normal , meaning that nothing to fear about on the situation on the ground? But do you see anything different that will show up at the elections?

There is no time people will say the country will break, what happens is the anxiety that goes with ceremony periods, even festivities. If you check, during Salah, for instance, the country assumes a different shape, a different dimension, you see people running around to buy things for themselves. It is the same thing with Christmas, it is the same thing with any major activity. There are activities that will herald a government, that will either do good or do bad or that will either change the destiny of people, change the narratives, such an activity should be characterised with running around and if you look at it from the point of contestation, people are out, contesting, some trying to outwit others, so that anxiety is necessary, it’s not unusual and must not be imputed from the negative perspective. I think if we look at it from the positive perspective that each time there is election you witness such tensions. Even, if you look at the students’ union election or even village elections the anxiety is there talk less of a national election. So, it’s not like there is the thinking that there will be something bad because it has to do with the circumstances.

But talking realistically concerning 2023, Nigerians are having fears which is beyond ordinary anxiety or you don’t think so?

Well, the fears I am having is probably before the elections, I have fears, and anxiety with regards to build up to the next election, but if election actually takes place the fears may not be much except if it’s going to be the fears of 1993 general election. That is the only fear, the fear of annulment. If not fear of annulment there is no fear. You know that prior to elections a lot happen that disrupt elections, that equally affects the equation in terms of who emerges and all that, a lot of anxiety etc. But immediately you capture the anxiety you get to the level of election taking place, that established, it is now fear of, will they allow the wish of the people? Will there be manipulation, where you have 20 votes will they say it’s 10 votes or will they say its 200 votes? So, that is where fears come in too? As for the election, it will come and go.

But as the 2023 elections draw closer, do you think that Nigerians are sensitised enough politically?

I think I have been voting for sometime now apart from the 1979 that I wasn’t qualified to vote, but since after that time, I have been voting. And of all the elections, the 2023 elections seem to me the only election, I am noticing that everybody is conscious, that even as at today everybody knows who he or she wants to vote for. It is an election that people even want the election to take place today. And it is drawn on certain distinction of probably performance, those who have performed, those who want to perform and it is an election, looking at the major contenders who have done one thing or the other before based on their work, their utterances, and who they are and their capacity. So, it is one of the most informed elections, an election that even the people that have been exercising apathy before, especially the youths, are now conscious, they are now showing some level of anxiety, they want to participate?

Why the anxiety or perhaps why is the anxiety at high pitch?

It is because of all the three major political parties that we have now, two have played a role and they have seen their roles and there is one trying to. And that before now, it has been either this or this, it is either the PDP or the APC, but now there is the Third Force. So, with that Third Force there is balancing of the election. Before now, the arrogance of the two parties was high because if it is not this, it is that. But now there is another force, the Third Force threatning them as we talk now. So, that is what makes it peculiar, that is what makes it different. There is also this data of young people that have registered. If you add or capture those numbers that registered in 2019 to the young adults that registered in this 2022 registration exercise, you are talking of about 26 million or so and that is a determining number because the same group falls under the same youth population. Even if you drag it backward to 2015, you will still capture those that are still below 30 years that fall within the same bracket. If you add them, those are still the active people. It is in this same group that you have those the same group that ASUU strike is affecting, those that the EndSARS affected so much, that is where you are still having the greatest percentage of the unemployed Nigerians, those who cannot get a job, so those people have experiences to share and they want to ventilate that in the coming election. Maybe, they are now face to face with the reality that they are not getting a fair deal from governance.

You talked about the Third Force which I assume is the Labour Party, but it has been said repeatedly especially by the ruling party, that LP has no structure?

But you heard when Minister Fashola was talking about “it’s all about the people”, that the system is all about the people. So, the structure is about the people, so I don’t understand them when they say LP has no structure because in the classical sense of it all, it is the human beings that make up the structure. You can see that the human beings are the structure. Before now the LP has not been among the first four or five, but you can see the phenomenal things happening there today. Even when you talk about buildings, or getting offices people are giving their buildings out for them to use. Look, this election is going to be a different election and I doubt if the presidential candidate of the LP has spent a dime so far, I doubt. This is an election where the people are using their own money to drive it, people are doing say, things like face cap, T-shirts etc; giving and sharing to people, people are giving their houses and some of us have donated our small houses for the work to continue, people are requesting for crowdfunding, they want to be involved, people want to raise money, people want to bring their money and are committed in what they are doing. We have never witnessed such and it tells you that Nigerians know what they want now politically, the dynamics have changed. It then means we can go to the gutters tomorrow, if the occasion demands and bring somebody and say, come and be our president and we contribute money and make that person president, the same for governor, the same for Federal Houses, the same for state House of Assembly, so that era, if this happens we will now be looking for quality, looking for people who can deliver to drive the process. That will be good for democracy.

With the latest move that the government is making in their face-off with ASUU, will you say it’s a commendable one?

Well, I read it from the papers that the government is trying to increase their salary and some other things. But you see, any salary that is not negotiated in the labour rule is a kind of dash, so if the government wants to give them a bonus that’s a bonus, but government must sit down to discuss with ASUU and if government is paying any percentage at all, it must be based on certain indices, whether based on cost of living index or based on inflation or some subsisting agreements, which say that this should be reviewed every, either four years or five years , periodically. There must be basis for any amount that you are giving, so you don’t just give them a dash because they are on strike. Government should sit down and negotiate with ASUU and break this jinx of trust, the trust gap is so much. It doesn’t really matter what government promises now, whatever they promise the ASUU people, Nigerian people, most people will be looking at it with suspicion and that is not good for democracy. I think government must show good faith and when you negotiate based on utmost good faith the people seem to buy into it and there will be trust.

How will you assess the political climate in the country as it is now?

It is becoming very interesting, Although campaigns have not started, but the picture is becoming clear from the utterances of the presidential candidates and there is something that we are going to ensure it happens that they, the presidential candidates must discuss with us the people not talk to us. The presidential candidates of the major political parties must talk with us, they must not talk to us, that is what should be important. We must engage them directly and get response directly, not them talking to us through their aides. We must ask them questions and they will answer, they should be able to tell us what they want to do, they should be able to tell us what they have done before, they should be able to go to the villages and towns and talk with them. The era of hiding under the political parties to win election is over. We should hold them responsible by their utterances, their actions and inactions. Those are the things that will equally affect the coming elections . There seem to be something, the feeling that is almost everywhere that if the election doesn’t reflect the wish of the people, the people will resist it. That is one thing I have noticed in this coming election. The people seem to know where they are going and I pity those who will want to subvert the wish of the people. There is this illusion of we the people in the constitution and it is the illusion that we have been having in this country. If you go through the constitution you will see: “We the People of Nigeria”, there was no time we agreed such. That constitution wasn’t the people’s constitution. There are some states that courts impose governors on, so you can’t say that those people are our people representing us. If it is an election that is the true reflection of the people’s will and wishes then you can hold them responsible and make them to be accountable.

Looking at Nigeria today, how satisfied or otherwise are you?

I am among the people that believe that Nigeria must work. Incidentally, I am among the people, either the last set of the people that got bursary, that equally went to school when the school was not much. I went to school when you could be two or three in a room. We were eating a plate of food within N50 etc, so in all intense and purposes, I can say that I saw Nigeria. When some of us were in secondary school you could notice that even the dollar wasn’t stronger than the Naira and some of our people who left to study abroad, some of them were those who couldn’t make five or six credits at a sitting and they had to travel out. Unemployment was not as it is now as it was easier for somebody to get something doing within a short period of time. But that is not what we are seeing or witnessing today. By virtue of what I have witnessed, what I saw before and what I am seeing now, I can see the situation getting more difficult by the day. I have relations, younger ones also who have finished school for years and we can’t help some of them because the jobs are not there. Companies are folding, even some banks as we speak are closing by 2:00 and 3:00p.m. I have equally noticed that most people that finished from school the ones that had First Class are teaching, not as a matter of choice and those that had passes or that didn’t even have any class are either governors or Senators. The social system, the value system seems to have changed and with that change in the value system those that didn’t go to school have now become the new rich, and since they are the new rich, the children that we are now having, our young growing ones are looking at them as models, knowledge is no longer given a pride of place, the negatives are now being seen or taken as the positive. It is a minus for us because it is not how an ideal state should be. (Sunday Sun)

Update news