EBUKA ONYEKWELU
No country has ever developed by falling to blackmail by Labour Unions and interest groups, who, primarily, are concerned about their members’ interests and not national interest. Labour Union interest is parochial and limited to only a section of the country.
Singapore remains my model in any discussion on chances of development in Nigeria and other Third World countries. Why? It is because Singapore has shown that a naturally disadvantaged Third World country can develop, how much more one that is gifted.
This is what Lee Kuan Yew said about Labour Unions in Singapore;
“Between July 1961 and September 1962, we had 153 strikes…at a meeting in July 1966… I urged them to abandon these British Union practices, which had ruined Britain’s economy. “
President Lee narrated further thus, “On 1st February 1967, about 2, 400 workers of the Public Daily Rated Cleansing Workers Union …went on strike. The police arrested and charged (their) leaders… at the time, the ministry declared that the striking workers had sacked themselves; those who wished to be employed could apply the next day… two months later, (the) Unions were deregistered. “
Lee Kuan Yew noted as follows, “we made it illegal for a trade union to take strike action or industrial action without a secret ballot.”
Imagine that in those early stages of struggle and lack and trial and darkness and gloom and uncertainty, that Lee Kuan Yew and his team, had fallen to the maneuvers of those Labour Unions, would there be a Singapore for us to look up to today?
©Ebuka Onyekwelu