Ade Abbas (not real name) looked
furtively around before he spoke. It was clear he was afraid. He was
afraid like many other factory workers, who simply walked away when our
correspondent approached them to inquire about working conditions in
their places of work. They did not want to get fired.
The condition in the country has taught
these youths to be thankful for their situation and count themselves
fortunate to be employed, no matter how terrible the working condition
in their places of work is.
Some of them told our correspondent that
they were aware that their case was ‘voluntary slavery;’ but said they
had become powerless as a result of the economic hardship in the
country.
“I don’t want to lose my job please, I
cannot lose this job. My wife is pregnant. The survival of my family and
I depends on the N15,000 I earn here per month,” Abbas said.
He tried to explain the reason why he
had to be vigilant as he met with our correspondent some distance away
from one of the factories of Lifemate Furniture, where he works on
Oregun Road, Lagos.
Lifemate is one of the numerous businesses run by Chinese nationals in the country.
For Abbas, work begins at 8am and ends at 5.30pm.
Abbas’s appearance was nothing close to what one could describe as good. His mien portrayed a man facing rough times.
“I finished secondary school but I had no means to further my education,” the 31-year-old man said.
His work involves lifting heavy
materials as he has to carry chunks of marble and other materials used
for the high-end products churned out from the company’s factory
everyday.
Abbas said, “This job is slavery, there
is no other way to describe it. In fact, the company only started paying
N15,000 recently. Our salary was N12,000 before. But where else do I go
if I leave this job? Even if I find another factory work somewhere
else, it is not likely that it will pay better.
“We hear from many other factory workers
around. Their bosses pay terrible wages as well. It is usually like
that in Chinese factories,” he added.
Foreign investment or foreign slavery?
China is one of the biggest investors in
Africa. In fact, recently, the outgoing Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria,
Deng Boqing, said the trade volume between Nigeria and China in 2013 was
almost $13bn.
“We encourage the Chinese companies to
do their business, especially establishing factories in Nigeria in
order to increase job opportunities for Nigerians and industrialise
products for Nigerians,” the envoy had said.
But stories abound how badly expatriate employers treat locals in the country.
Saturday PUNCH met Tade
Babatunde, a 30-year-old former employee of Lifemate, who claimed he
developed a recurrent chest pain as a result of lifting heavy materials
while in the employ of the company. He was fired a few months ago.
He told Saturday PUNCH, “The
first time I took permission to go for treatment since the company does
not have a health insurance, N5,600 (about $36) was deducted from the
N26,000 (about $167) I earned monthly. I was so shocked because I had
thought my bosses would be considerate. I earned N26,000 because I had
spent more than three years in the company.
“If you are ill, you are on your own.
The second time I had to stay off work because of the chest pain, I got
back to work and was fired. I was a healthy person before I got the
employment. There are no lifting tools available to us. I developed
health challenges after continuous lifting of heavy materials in the
factory.”
Babatunde said that out of his N26,000
salary, N6,000 was spent on transport from his home to work and from
work back home since he had to work Monday through Saturday. Only his
Sunday was free.
“I live in Ijaiye and spent at least
N200 on transport every day while I was working with Lifemate. I had to
do a lot of trekking daily just to reduce the cost of transport,” he
said.
A visit to the showroom of the furniture
company reveals a repertoire of expensive high-end furniture and
marble-topped kitchen cabinets.
Babatunde was bitter. He said the fact
that he was paid far less than the heavy work he did should have made
his foreign employers to be considerate when he complained of ill
health.
In another part of Lagos, and in yet
another high-end furniture factory, Alibert Products Nigeria Limited,
employees work for pay they can barely survive on.
During a visit to the factory, one of
the employees who volunteered to speak with our correspondent blatantly
refused to give his name for fear of being sacked for whatever he had to
say. He explained that no matter how small the wages the foreigners who
employed them paid, they could never protest.
“I had been coming here for at least two
years in search of work before I was offered work in December 2013. I
am paid N15,000 per month. Of course, it is not enough but where is the
job in this country? Don’t you know things are hard in Nigeria?
“Nobody here complains about the little
wage we are paid because we are all afraid of losing our job. I cannot
afford to lose this job because it took me a long time before I could
get in. In fact, if not for a friend who helped me, I would still be
coming here every morning with the hope that someday, I would get a job
in the factory.”
This young man is a polytechnic graduate who learnt furniture making after school.
Having qualified as a furniture maker,
our correspondent suggested that he should have set up his own workshop.
But he said there was no fund to set up as he even had to scrounge for
money to put himself through school.
He said, “After I left school and there
was no job, I had to go and learn furniture making. When I finished that
too, there was no money to set up. I thought the best thing was to look
for work in a factory like this. So you can see, anybody who complains
that the money we are paid is too small is just stupid.
“Last month, my friend left this job. He
said the money was too small for him. He was the one feeding me before I
got the job. Now, I am the one feeding him.”
The case of the young man mirrors the
plight of many young Nigerians who seek jobs in factories run by
expatriates in different parts of the country.
He felt he was one of the lucky ones
even though he admitted that out of his N15,000 salary, he spent between
N6,000 and N7,000 on transport every month.
“I spend at least N150 every day on transport because I live in Egbeda,” he said.
N93 per hour work
Between 7am and 12pm of any week day, at
least 60 youths, both male and female, besiege the entrance of Solpia
Nigeria Limited, a company that manufactures artificial hair on Iju
Road, Agege, Lagos.
The young men and women appear to be
relentless because they are there everyday and remain at the gate of the
Chinese company for hours before dispersing in twos and threes late in
the evening.
One of the young men, Ayotunde Akinyo,
who has become a regular “customer” among those who visit the company
every morning, explained the reason why he had been parading the place
with the hope of getting employed in the last six months.
“Sometimes, the Chinese owners employ
50 people at a go out of the crowd of job seekers standing outside.
Sometimes, they take just five. Before now, I used to come here
irregularly, but it seemed that they usually employed on those days that
I did not come. That is why I have been coming here regularly for the
past six months,” he said.
Akinyo said he was 27 years old and had a Higher Diploma in Mechanical Engineering.
When he was asked by our correspondent
whether he was aware of how much he could be paid if he was lucky to get
employed, he said he knew.
The young polytechnic graduate said he
knew that he would be paid N15,000, which translates to about N93 per
hour for eight hours in five days a week. A worker had earlier hinted
that the salary of a fresher in the company used to be N20,000 until it
was recently slashed to N15,000.
“What other choice have I got? I did not
just graduate and decided to come here. I had searched for jobs and was
tired before I decided to come here,” Akinyo explained.
Akinyo found no reason to be ashamed as he was aware that there were many other graduates like him in the crowd.
Brutality, abuse by expatriates
The Nigerian government consistently
speaks about the innumerable advantages of foreign investment in the
country. But if the stories of many workers in the foreign companies and
factories, narrated to Saturday PUNCH are anything to go by, it seems many of the foreign investors and expatriates come into the country armed with horsewhips.
In December 2013, a national outcry
necessitated an intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan in a case of
the assault of 34-year-old Mrs. Alexandra Ossai, who was brutalised by
her Lebanese employer, Kaveh Noine, after which she lost her pregnancy.
Last week, which was barely a month after Ossai’s case broke, The PUNCH reported
the case of 40-year-old Adeleke Owolabi, who was allegedly assaulted by
his Chinese boss, Mike Jackson, and his (Jackson’s) cousin. One kicked
him in the private part, the other smashed a bottle on his head.
Many of this kind of incidents go
unreported as our correspondent would soon learn. Workers in some
factories run by foreign firms in Lagos told our correspondent that most
times, the victims would rather endure the abuse than lodge a complaint
with the appropriate authorities and risk losing their jobs.
And sometimes, the abuse is verbal in
nature. A case in point is Nigerdock Nigeria Plc, an oil and gas
construction company run by expatriates in Apapa, Lagos.
Nigerian workers in the company, who would rather remain anonymous, told Saturday PUNCH about how their expatriate bosses assault them verbally with racial slurs.
“Our expatriate bosses feel that we are
slaves and treat us exactly that way. Some of them unleash verbal abuses
and unnecessary sanction against us just to keep us subdued,” one of
the workers told Saturday PUNCH.
When asked to name the expatriates who
treat them that way, he promptly mentioned Chris Clark (Briton) and
Nichola Marriott (Briton).
“If you see the way Clark treats us, you will realise that it is just a matter of time before he starts to whip us,” he said.
The issue of verbal abuse has been a
bone of contention in Nigerdock for a while. But there has not been any
intervention from the government on this issue.
In 2011, our correspondent reported how
some expatriates in the company routinely called the Nigerian workers
‘black monkeys,’ a case that degenerated into a protest and the sack of
many Nigerians in the company. Marriott was named as one of the
expatriates responsible for the verbal abuse at the time.
Findings showed that the foreigners who
were mostly guilty of abuse and maltreatment of their local workers are
Indians, Chinese and Lebanese.
Systematic expulsion from neighbourhoods
The grouse some Nigerians have against
some of the numerous expatriates in the country does not stop at
workplace abuse. Some said, “A systematic expulsion” of Nigerians in
some Lagos neighbourhoods is taking place. Ilupeju is a typical example.
Princewill Okeagwu is one of such individuals who have experienced this.
He said, “I lived in Ilupeju for at
least three years before I got married. A few months after I got
married, I got a notice to quit my apartment for renovation. It was fine
by me.
“I got another apartment after some time
but I later learnt that the landlord sent me away because a Lebanese
offered to pay almost double what I paid as rent. I was paying a yearly
rent of N500,000 but I heard the Lebanese offered to pay N900,000 per
annum and he paid three years upfront.
“I thought it was ridiculous but my
friends later told me that is what is happening all over Ilupeju now.
The expatriates, especially Lebanese, are using money to shut Nigerians
out of the neighbourhoods. You want to pay N400,000 for rent and a
foreigner offers to pay N800,000, who do you think your landlord would
listen to?”
A Nigerian who currently lives in
Ilupeju as a tenant confirmed to our correspondent that the area was
fast becoming foreigners’ exclusive territory.
“It happens. That is what capitalism is
all about. Landlords too want to make profit. Some of these expatriates
just come here to enslave Nigerians and chase us out of the
neighbourhoods,” the man, who identified himself as Peter, said.
Reaction of expatriates
Our correspondent contacted the companies cited in this publication but some of them were evasive.
A Chinese national at Lifemate Furniture
initially said he was in a position to answer our correspondent’s
enquiries when he requested to see the manager. But when he realised it
concerned the welfare of workers, he recanted and said his manager would
be the one to respond. Asked when one could get the manager, he said,
“I cannot say, but he will call you himself.”
As at the time of filing this report, he had not called back.
The Human Resources Manager of
Nigerdock, Mr. Segun Ashamu (a Nigerian), said he was not aware of any
allegations of verbal abuse in the company.
“The expatriates against whom the
allegations were made the last time were repatriated. Nobody has
reported any case to me lately. We take such allegations seriously. But I
will look into the matter,” he said.
Later on Thursday, Ashamu said he had
discussed with his boss and that the company could not commence
investigation into the allegations of the workers unless their
identities were revealed.
“The company takes employees’ welfare and security very seriously,” he said.
When our correspondent visited Alibert
Furniture, an official said he would prefer if the Managing Director,
Chief Maged Taan, responded to the questions himself.
When Saturday PUNCH called Taan, he seemed to be outside the country.
“I am in Ivory Coast at the moment, can
you please call me back on Thursday?” the Lebanese said when our
correspondent spoke with him on the phone.
His number was not reachable when our correspondent called back on Thursday.
Government and the workers are to blame – Labour
The government has abandoned its
regulatory responsibility as it concerns the operations of foreign
companies in the country, a labour leader, Abiodun Aremu, told Saturday PUNCH.
He said the problems that brought about the “enslavement” of Nigerians were multi-faceted.
Aremu, Secretary of the Joint Action
Front, a union that has always fought against casualisation of workers
in the country, said, “The major deficiency in addressing this issue has
to do with the responsibility of the government. The government is the
regulatory body in industrial relations. The position of the law is that
every worker has a right to belong to a union. And it is only through a
union that one can undertake a collective bargaining process, which
allows you to discuss wages and the conditions of work.
“More often than not, government does
not address issues relating to the workplace condition of workers. There
ought to be factory inspection monitors from the Ministry of Labour but
the government is not doing anything like that. That is why the
responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of the government.
“Casualisation or contract employment is
what allows slave labour and gives the employers the opportunity to
undermine the rights of the workers.”
According to Aremu, workers themselves
fail to report the terrible working conditions in many of these
factories so that appropriate actions can be taken.
“Whatever is happening in those
factories is a reflection of our irresponsibility as a people to
determine what we want and how our country should be run. Workers
themselves need to be forthcoming so that their rights can be protected.
Only information from them can allow us to engage their employers. If
you engage one employer, it would send signals to the rest,” he said.
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