There was no demonstration here yesterday. According to my sources, the grassroots NGOs involved were dismayed with how the previous day’s march turned out. They spent yesterday creating strategies for, as they termed it, “taking back the mobilization from the labor union big men.” Those human rights groups felt like further coordination with the NLC could further professionalize (my term from the previous post) the movement, making negotiations too covert and too undemocratic. There were rumors swirling around via text message that labor leaders had taken bribes from the governor’s office at the Tuesday march, and that consequently the national strike would be called off next week (yet to be determined true or false). The other messages disseminated on facebook included that the subsidy would soon be reinstated to 65 naira per liter (false) and that a protesting youth in Port Harcourt had been shot by police earlier in the morning (false). After spending the day rethinking the mobilization tactics, NGO activists set a demonstration time for 9 am this morning.
-
Recent Posts
Archives
- January 2019
- December 2018
- August 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- November 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- July 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- October 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- April 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- March 2014
- January 2014
- June 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
Top Posts & Pages
- African means of communication in a contemporary world
- The West and East African Slave Trades, Compared
- Italian Colonization in Africa
- A very brief chronology of the Nigerian oil economy
- Report on the Impact of Nigerian LGBT Law
- About Laine Munir
- The Paradox of Plenty
- Rwanda Achieves Universal Healthcare
Blogroll
Twitter Updates
Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.
So there is a “human rights” presence (domestic, international,?) that maybe in opposition to the labor movement. On what terms? Does gender play a role here? Is the gov negotiating or talk with any of the human rights or women’s groups? Christine
LikeLike
It is very difficult to be a labor-oriented “human rights” organization in Nigeria and not be supportive of the national labor union (National Labor Congress or NLC), since it is really only through coordination with the NLC that labor-based reforms are implemented by the federal government. There are many other domestic civil/human rights groups that exist separate from the labor movement and they may be opposed to the NLC at times when the NLC agenda is not compatible with that of the human rights groups. For example, the NLC has called for greater local job creation for Niger Deltans, which is in opposition to environmental groups asking for the oil companies to leave altogether. Based on my understanding at this point, I would represent this with a simple Venn diagram, with the NLC occupying one circle, domestic civil/human rights groups not focused on labor in the other, and labor-focused civil/human rights groups in the intersection. International human rights groups do not have as strong a presence in Nigeria as in many other African countries, resulting largely from the inhospitable military regimes and the systematic corruption that have hindered the growth of both of civil society groups and more general human rights culture.
LikeLike