In the movie Dante’s Peak, a memory from my adolescence, the character Harry Dalton defined the making of a disaster. “My 9th-grade science teacher always said that if you put a frog in boiling hot water,” he said, “it would jump out.” The frog, when put in cold water, and heated up gradually, he continued, […]
Across the world, the Labour movement is today commemorating May Day, otherwise called Workers Day. But in Nigeria, there appears to be nothing to celebrate apart from being alive
Censorship and freedom of speech: The Nigerian labour conundrum
On
By Clarius Ugwuoha
It was the late Ugandan despot, Idi Amin, who was credited with the immortal but infamous dictum: “You have freedom of speech. But freedom thereafter, that I cannot guarantee.” This appears to be the guiding principle in Nigeria and most other African countries.
The history of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, as a trade union with capability to sway labour laws in the country and advance the interest of workers, has been heavily vitiated by graft, intimidation and compromise. The current Nigeria Labour leader, Mr. Ayuba Philibus Waba, is certainly in a dilemma due to the peculiar operating terrain. The contemporary Nigerian reality is worse than military dictatorship and the autocratic reflex is evident in every tier of government-citizen engagement.