THISDAYonline

Nigerian Trade Unions over the years have often shown the intention of fostering or promoting a political party that would be ideology based. Environmental factors and some differences in the labour movement have accounted for the failure to translate intentions to reality.

Most recently however, some personages in the movement provided vital impulse for the formation of a new political association, which claims to be committed to the ideals of social democracy.

Recently in Bauchi, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), reaffirmed its resolve to promote a political party sympathetic to progressive ideals and committed to social democracy. The President of Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, said the new party would be genuinely socially democratic, pro-labour and pro-masses, while being independent of the trade unions and NLC. Congress noted that the party would be issue based, and capable of providing alternative options on all national issues.

Organised labour is not alone in this exercise. Members of the human rights community are involved. Consultation is indeed on, according to the facilitators. Only recently in Abuja, labour and close to 100 rights groups, women organisations, youths and student bodies met to work out modalities.

A committee cutting across all segments was constituted. Mr. Mike Okoye, the facilitator of the unregistered National Democratic Labour Party during the Gen. Sani Abacha transition programme said that effort was on to relaunch the labour party. The constitutional lawyer said the three political parties, Alliance for Democracy (AD), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Peoples Party (APP), which were hurriedly put together in 1998 have failed to live up to the responsibility to provide and defend the peoples interest.

Okoye said the ruling PDP, APP as well as AD were peopled and led by politicians, lacking any ideology, who jointly nominated Abacha as the sole presidential candidate of the five political parties of the era, adding that "there is need for a people oriented party to emerge. The approach of the existing parties to important national issues have shown that we cannot rely on them and Nigerians deserve a truly national party that will not sacrifice honour and integrity for selfish reasons."

The Congress President said consultation with relevant associations, which share the same vision with labour was on. The new party, according to Oshiomhole, would redefine the character of the nation's polity. At the summit of labour and human rights groups, the president said the party would be different in orientation from the existing parties. That the party will speak for the all Nigerians, especially the less privileged.

"As part of our own long term contribution to the process of principled politics, NLC has resolved to give active support to facilitate the formation of Social Demo-cratic Party which NLC shall support and which it will urge the Nigerian public to subscribe to. Those who believe that there should be a change for preparation of members of such party and contribute their own quota to the funding.

The manner in which current parties emerged, made it convenient for individuals to galvanise together and form parties just for the purpose of acquiring power from military in 1999. The most pressing objective for the politicians then, they argued, was to see through the Abdulsalami transition programme and bring an end to military regime. That being the case, commitment to any political principles and ideals was considered secondary. Consequently people including military apologists, who acquired tremendous resources under the era, got elected into the post-military organ.

For instance, a close study of the manifestoes of the existing three political parties has no explanation to offer on the issue of privatisation nor have they got concrete programmes for creating employment nor for addressing any of the protracted problems that have created despair and hopelessness among the citizens. The government of the three parties at the different levels appear to be government of individuals without party direction and or programme. This explains why both the executive and legislature, though controlled by PDP have been on war path.

Experts believe that this situation accounts for the degeneration in situation in the country in which the expected dividends of democracy, interpreted to mean, better and improved standard of living, economic empowerment, security and peace have all become continually elusive. This explains the bases for the clamour for the new parties. As a writer pointed out the "new parties have to be driven by a sense of history. A sense of what has gone wrong and must be corrected. A sense of what we did not have the time to do the last time but have to get right this time. The new parties must have something to stand for, must have an ideological anchor, otherwise, it would only run rudderness."

Can labour fit this bill, if is launched in a matter of weeks? What would be the relationship between the party and organised labour? Who funds it? More than this, what tendency or innovation will labour bring into the polity that would be marked different from others? What would be its ideological framework? Is the labour force free from the societal vices?

Oshiomhole stated that the proposed party would be independent of trade unions, in the like of British Labour Party (LP) and South African's African National Congress (ANC) and most other social democratic parties world over. These parties are ideologically based. Their position on any issue is known. Can labour say the same of itself? Most unlikely. For example, the issue of privatisation appears to have split labour. Why the congress leadership as supporting the exercise, some of the officials are opposed to it.

For Oshiomhole," I used to be the foremost opponent of privatisation because I thought it was immoral. But over the time, I have asked myself that is it immoral that I own a business and I am victimised by the same business, why those I hire to run it end up as super millionaires. As a trade unionist, if you ask me to support this status quo, I cannot any more."

But in contrast to this, the President of the National Union Shop and Distributive Employees (NUSEDE), who is also a national officer, of the NLC, Comrade Bright Anokuru cautioned the Federal Government against the exercise.

On his part, President of Maritime Workers Union Comrade Oni-Okaese, labour warned that "any attempt at doing this would be strongly resisted by workers.

"Our position is that privatisation is inimical to the working class in Nigeria and we are not in support of it's any form," President of Chemical Workers Comrade Moses Gbadeba said. The strongest opposition has come from workers of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), who have vowed to withdraw from Congress, if it continued to endorse NEPA privatisation.

Does it not amount to inconsistency to preach of social democracy and opt for privatisation? Privatisation is a logical component of absolute reliance on the market as a doctrine and commitment to concept of small government in favour of big business. Labour should define its stand on issues as sensitive as this, others, many believe it would face the same problem affecting the present parties. It should re-examine the capacity of such party to provide alternative options, on vital issues by natural life.

Congress President claimed in Bauchi that the new party will not be communist in character and would be independent of NLC. Most people wonder why the President should isolate the party from communism, while in reality, communists society radicals and progressives of all tendencies are known to be social democrats of either right, left or centre.