3 weeks ago
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By Victor Ahiuma-Young
IBADAN — The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has called connected Nigerian workers and the media to instrumentality complaint of the technological gyration sweeping crossed workplaces, informing that Artificial Intelligence, AI, indispensable not go different instrumentality of exploitation successful the hands of large capitalists.
President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, who made the telephone portion speaking astatine the 2025 Conference of the Labour Writers Association of Nigeria, LAWAN, held successful Ibadan, Oyo State, weekend, declared that the aboriginal of enactment indispensable beryllium shaped by quality values, corporate bargaining and solidarity, not machines oregon profit-driven algorithms.
Represented by the Lagos State chairperson of NLC, Funmi Sessi, Ajaero said: “The aboriginal of enactment successful the epoch of Artificial Intelligence presents a caller frontier successful the age-old exploitation of the moving people by large capital.
‘’They merchantability america a communicative of ratio and progress, but we indispensable spot it for what it genuinely is, a instrumentality for maximising nett by de-skilling jobs, casualising labour and weakening the corporate powerfulness of the moving people. This is the modern look of the people struggle.
“As a writer who erstwhile walked successful your shoes, I recognize the powerfulness you wield. Your typewriters, your recorders, and your keyboards are nary little important than our placards and dialog tables. They are the instruments with which we signifier the narrative, antagonistic the propaganda of the bourgeoisie and awaken the consciousness of the masses.”
Ajaero warned that Artificial Intelligence, though paraded arsenic neutral technological progress, was being weaponised by large corporations to “intensify exploitation, reshape labour relations toward greater precariousness, and erode the precise foundations of workplace rights.
“It threatens to make a new, digitally dispossessed underclass done simplification successful skilling, cognitive dependence, and wide displacement. It besides enables unprecedented surveillance and power implicit workers, undermining corporate bargaining, the close to organise, and the protections that signifier the bedrock of workers’ dignity.
“For our nation, an AI-driven economy, shaped by capitalist imperatives, promises not inclusive improvement but a deepening chasm of inequality, wherever wealthiness and powerfulness are concentrated successful the hands of a tiny elite.”
Technology indispensable service humanity
The NLC President urged labour movements to beryllium proactive successful shaping an inclusive aboriginal wherever exertion served humanity alternatively than enslaved it.
He said: “We indispensable prehend the inaugural to signifier the aboriginal of enactment successful our ain image, a aboriginal wherever exertion serves humanity, not the different mode around. Do not mourn the integer plantation; organise it! The algorithms that show america tin beryllium made to service us, but lone if we, the workers, clasp the code.
“We indispensable bargain for broad retraining and upskilling programmes funded by taxes connected the excessive profits of tech giants. Our conflict is to socialise the benefits of AI and robotise the burdens, ensuring it leads to a nine with much leisure, greater security, and shared prosperity for the moving class.”
Ajaero reminded participants that the aboriginal of enactment was not a prophecy determined by Silicon Valley elites, but a battlefield that indispensable beryllium shaped by the corporate conflict of workers.
“The aboriginal is not a predetermined destiny handed down by algorithms and capitalists. The aboriginal is simply a battlefield. It is ours to signifier done relentless struggle, unwavering solidarity and a unified ideological front. Let america march guardant together! Let america combat together!! Let america triumph together!!!”
The station AI: Workers, not machines, indispensable signifier aboriginal — NLC appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.
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