PRESSURE GROUP POLITICS IN NIGERIA A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE NIGERIAN LABOUR CONGRESS, 2000--2014

Abstract

This paper presents a study of pressure group politics in Nigeria with a focus on the activities of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the past eleven years. While the main objective is to critically examine the dynamics of pressure group politics in Nigeria with a view to assessing their political and socioeconomic implications, to corporate existence of Nigeria in an attempt to allocate cherished values in an equitable andjustifiable manner, the study has as its specific objectives, to ascertain if the activities of the Nigeria Labour Congress have led to increased wages/salaries, working conditions and standard of living of the Nigerian worker; to determine the extent to which activities of the Nigeria Labour Congress have enhanced reduction in level of
unemployment in the country; and to evaluate the impact of NLCon the socio-economic and political processes in Nigeria as a nation. Flowing from the objectives outlined above, the study attempts to provide answers to a number of research questions such as in terms of wages/salaries and standard of living of the workers, has the level of success of the NLCbeen relatively high in the period under review. Have the activities of the congress facilitated reduction in the level of unemployment in the country, within the study period? Finally, the study will also want to know if the organizations activities have had a significant impact on the socio-economic and political process of Nigeria as a nation in the period under investigation. Using an indepth interview  guide (lGI), responses from ten labour leaders spread across four Eastern states were analyzed and interpreted in a content analytic approach to yield a number of findings and recommendations which include: the urgent need to compel the Federal Gavernment to institute welfare packages for the old and unemployed in the society and establish oil refineries in the Niger Delta areas to reduce unemployment. Its cardinal recommendations include among others, that jumbo wage of legislators must be checkmated while the war against corruption should be intensified.