Something momentous happened on 18th May, this year. The Nigerian Labour Congress called for a nationwide general strike and hardly anyone paid heed to them.

Why is this momentous?

Since 1999 and up until maybe 2012, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) was the voice of the common man in Nigeria, of the masses and of the workers who made up the unions that are part of the NLC.

As Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, the NLC got reinvigorated with the election of then Comrade Adams Oshiomhole (now Governor Oshiomhole of Edo State) as its President. Under him, the NLC was a thorn in the flesh of the Obasanjo administration. In the absence of formidable opposition to the government, the NLC stepped in to fill that gap, fighting the government to standstill on policies it deemed ‘anti-people’, notably fuel price increases.

With every fuel price hike came strikes and demonstrations which ground the economy to a halt. After that came the meetings and talks where a price between the old price and the new price will be agreed upon. A couple of years and the process is repeated.

Even when Oshiomhole exhausted his two terms as president of the labour union and became a governor, the fight was sustained by his successor, Abdulwaheed Omar.

So at what point did it all go south for the NLC?

The Anti-Subsidy Protests of January 2012, better known as Occupy Nigeria.

The opposition to the sudden removal of fuel subsidy by the Jonathan administration while town hall meetings and public hearings were still going on to convince the Nigerian electorate of the necessity of that move spurred Nigerians into action to protest.

The difference however, was that this time, the protests were not organized by the NLC but by young activists using the power of social media. Before you could say ‘Jack Robinson’, there were huge protests from Lagos to Abuja and Kano.

It was much later that the NLC entered the picture, but it was them that entered the negotiating room with the Federal Government. When they came out, fuel subsidy was back, but the price had gone up to N86/litre from N65/litre.

In all fairness to the NLC, they were only doing what NLC does best: negotiate fuel price, and land on a price midway between the old one and the new one. However, emotions were riding very high during the Occupy Nigeria protests and many of the protesters were not going to accept anything other than a return to N65/litre.

These were the people who quickly branded the NLC as sell-outs with unproven allegations of under-the-table payments.

The NLC never recovered from this loss of popularity, and it got worse when the elections to replace the Omar-led executive was marred by fights on live TV and resulted in the split of the Labour Congress into two factions, one led by Comrade Ayuba Wabba (which called for the strike) and another led by Comrade Joe Ajaero.

While I was happy that their strike action failed, I am not excited that the NLC is now a shadow of itself. Active labour unions are an important part of every democracy, especially one that was for a long time the only opposition to government when opposition political parties failed in stepping up to the plate.

Also, labour unions are important as a pressure group to advocate for policies that will increase the labour force in a country as well as make life easier for existing workers.

So what should the NLC do to regain its lost glory?

First step will be to sort out its in-house politics. No house divided against itself can stand, and surely, an NLC with two factions will have its effectiveness blunted.

Secondly, the NLC needs to re-examine its stance on many issues and add some common sense economics to its ideology.

One reason the May 18th strike failed was because Nigerians had already suffered for long due to fuel scarcity and were paying a price much higher than N145/litre that the new fuel price felt like a bargain so long the fuel will be available.

This fact seemed lost on the NLC, who had been silent throughout the period of scarcity only to regain their voice when the fuel price was increased.

They also failed to read their political tea leaves properly to realize that fuel subsidy removal, for which opposition to it is core to their ideology, has become far more popular among Nigerians now than at any other time in our history.

Makes you wonder why they employ a Chief Economist and still make weird statements on economic issues. Or maybe it is the Chief Economist. I don’t even know.

Lastly, the NLC needs to expand the number of issues it advocates on. It is rather tiring to hear them speak of only three issues: fuel price/subsidy, opposition to sacking or retrenchment of workers by the Federal Government and pushing for a higher minimum wage.

There are many other issues that afflict Nigerian workers that the NLC hardly ever talks about: casualization and retrenchment of workers by private organizations, unsafe workplaces (for example, factories where workers are locked in working overnight and exposed to fire hazards), etc.

I hope that the NLC will soon bounce back and regain their relevance.