Politics as the fourth factor of production

The** advent of the industrial revolution in the 18th century in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and the United States of America established Land, Labour and Capital as the primary factors of production. While land included natural, mineral and water resources above and beneath it, capital essentially meant money, legal tender or any other means of exchange and labour was the work force deployed to till, mine and cultivate the land as well as proper utilisation of capital. Of the three primary factors of economic production, labour is the most important. Although interdependent with one another with none dispensable, labour is needed to convert the enormous potential of land to satisfy wants, just as it is the fruits of labour that is converted into capital to keep the wheels of production grinding. Labour is the most important factor of economic production because, while capital and land are inanimate, labour is animate in its primary forms as a human activity that utilizes land and capital to satisfy human wants and needs accordingly.**

While the industrial revolution transformed the course of human economic activities for the better, the invention of machines and substitution for manual labour tended to undermine the importance of labour in the early stages of the industrial age. Armed with enormous capital and equipped with machines the emergent class of industrial capitalists, like slave masters before them, exploited labour to the maximum without commensurate benefit. It was out of the chaos of the early ages of the industrial revolution, which was characterized by poor wages, exploitation, poor working conditions and everything that can be categorized as unfair and unethical labour practices that the organised labour movement emerged.

As a means of collective bargaining, workers, traders and artisans organised themselves into unions to replace the pre-industrial era guilds to engage with both public and private employers for better working conditions. Beginning from 18th Century Britain, industrial actions were embarked on by workers to press home their demands for fairer labour practices and improved condition for workers by the organised labour movement in the industrial world. Industrial disagreements between capitalists and their workers soon triggered a class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. It was this class struggle that incubated a new ideological framework for the political economies of the newly industrialised nations of the world to challenge what has been denounced as capitalism. This ideology is socialism. It is this ideology that saw the labour movement transform into social democratic movements and eventually resulted in the formation of organised labour-backed political parties.

Beginning with the formation of the Labour Party of the UK from an amalgamation of the Trade Union Congress of England and Wales with other elements of the labour movement in 1900 and the rise to pre-eminence of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party of Russia in 1903, organised labour all over the industrial world could no longer sit on the sidelines as perpetual spectators in the game of partisan politics. As the most important factor of production, labour could no longer concern itself with just negotiating for its slice of bread spread with butter. The labour movement, as matter of self-enlightened interest, decided to get involved in the baking of the bread and the preparation of the butter in order to be in a better position to get a more satisfying slice by stepping away from the sidelines into the arena of partisan politics of democratic leadership recruitment. By 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, rode to power on the back of the Russian revolution, and the Labour Party of UK formed its first democratic government in 1924 with Ramsay McDonald as Prime Minister when it won the majority seats in the British parliament. These labour-centred parties and others like them all over the world successfully incorporated the ethos of social democracy in the politics of their respective nations and mainstreamed the charter of demands of the organised labour movement in ways very profound that have largely resolved the existential problems of financial inadequacy, inequality and insecurity of members of organised labour. A vital lesson to learn from the transformational experiences from organised labour movements to political parties is that while it is true that labour is the most important factor of production, politics as the fourth factor of production is far more important.

Bringing this nearer home, the organised labour movement can no longer sit on the sidelines as mere spectators in the politics of Nigeria. The time is right for the labour movement in Nigeria to stop agonising over its inadequate bread and butter and must begin to organise to get involved in the process of baking bigger bread from which it can get an adequate slice for its members. The scope of labour as a factor of economic production transcends mining, manufacturing, academia and manning the military industrial complex to the politics of democratic leadership recruitment. Since the transition from military to civil democratic rule in 1999, the organised labour movement in Nigeria has largely remained aloof and detached from matters of partisan politics to the detriment of the cause of good governance in Nigeria.

The reason for the existence of a modern democratic nation state must be more economic than political; economics of production and not politics of consumption. And for a democratic nation state to be able to provide security and welfare for its people, its politics must be primarily driven by the economics of production. This is so because no nation on earth is really endowed with abundant human and natural resources. At best, nations are only endowed with enough natural and human resources and must necessarily look beyond their borders to shore up their resource base through developmental immigration and overseas trade and investment. The most export-competitive nations are those whose internal political processes are predicated on the economics of production and not those whose economies are predicated on the politics of consumption. Unfortunately, the democratic Nigerian state exists more for the politics of consumption and less for the economics of production. This is sadly so because its politics is primarily driven by ethnic and religious sentiments, rather than economic common sense. This is so because, at the inception of the Fouth Republic, the labour movement in Nigeria, which is the most important economic interest group in the country, left partisan politics to ethnic champions and religious bigots who imposed identity politics as the major driving force of Nigeria’s democratic leadership recruitment process. And with an elaborately corrupt patronage system as the main reward for identity politics, the attendant financial haemorrhaging is what has driven Nigeria broke and unable to pay living wages, provide health care and decent housing for the Nigerian people.

To effectively transform Nigeria from a consumption economy to a productive one, the organised labour movement will have to step away from the side lines into the main arena of partisan politics by harmonising its charter of demands into a concise people’s manifesto for national rebirth and democratic redemption, away from identity politics with patronage as the reward system for a privileged few to an economics-driven politics, with good governance as reward for all. But, to transform Nigeria’s economy from consumption to production, the government can no longer hands off the means of production to private individuals alone. The neo-liberal concept that seeks to keep government out of the means of production under the guise of ‘government has no business in business’ is a proven fallacy that must be rescinded, if not repudiated, by the organised labour movement and insist on a new political economic philosophy that states that ‘government has business in business’ because the main purpose of government is doing business and any government that cannot do business has no business being in government.

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