May Day is here again. In this interview with ROWENA CHUKUKA, Comrade Onyenere decried the poor working conditions of workers.
EXCERPTS –
Can we know you?
My name is Comrade Marcellinus Onyenwere, the State Chairman of National Union of Agriculture and Allied Workers Employees.
Where do you work?
I work with Atlantic Shriners Ltd, the largest fishing Company in West Africa.
How do you feel today?
Today is a great day. May Day is a day set aside to free workers from bondage, intimidation and slavery.
We are happy that we have this day made special for the workers, to make them commnurate this occasion, but the Issue of May Day will not be complete if the workers are not free if intimidation from their managers and from their companies. That is why today, we set it aside as a special day to appeal to the organizations where our members are working.
What are your challenges
1. At least give us a good enabling environment where we are working.
2. We are appealing to government and also the labour leaders in particular, to help us go round most of these companies because they are intimidating their workers. Some of them are working under slavery conditions and most of them are casuals. As a matter of fact, if nothing is done, May Day is then, nothing to read home about or talk about. Our celebration will be nothing to talk about.
As it is now, we are pleading that workers that are working in the private sector, where they are working as slaves and with intimation should be saved. It will be good for the leaders of labour to set up committees that will go round to find out those companies that are not doing the right things. Most of the owners of these companies are owned by some government officers and most of the expertraites are part of the situation we are talking about. They refused to give the workers what they are expected to give to them as their rights.
What are your expectations from government?
We are expecting the Federal government to also help us take this information or messages to these companies involved in mistreatment of their workers. We were made to understand that most of the people in power are shareholders in these companies, they are managers, directors of most of these companies. On this, we expected them to correct the anormalies.
The workers are suffering. This day, we are appealing to the federal government especially on provision of health care, transportation, housing etc. Even food is not easy to get nowadays. What we call minimum wage is not minimum at all. The federal government should look into housing estate because landlord is cutting people’s throat in the name of tenement rent. If workers can live in government houses and pay a little money, it will be good. Federal government should set up committee on the issue of housing to get housing estate for workers so as to reduce the hardship of house rent. Workers can have their own house or rent at a minimun rate.
However, the most important is the issue of insecurity in this country now, it is here and there, no body sleeps with two eyes close. People can’t sleep in their houses and close their eyes, people moving on the road can’t walk freely. These days we have kidnapping, small boys going into rituals killing which is very bad. The reason is not too far because there is no job. Federal government should create enabling environment especially, by providing job. So that the students that are graduating from Schools- the university, college of education, polyitecni etc, will have something to do and work. Mostly, those boys that are turning into criminalists, will not help this country. because
there is a saying that “the evil mind that have nothing to do is an evil mind all the time”.
What are your challenges as the chairman of your union?
We are in agric union, agriculture is suppose to be the order of the day. But we are not getting what is expected to encourage us to esterblish us in this very agriculture. That is why we are saying that government, should set up committee to look into
1. Why people are not going into agriculture.
2. We want to establish but we are not getting the best even, to get fertiliser to go into agriculture is a problem.
In my place where I’m working, we are members of Atlanta sheriners Fishing company and this finishing requires a lot of encouragement from the government. As there’s no job we can export and earn foreign exchange for the country. The challenges are much.
