Sorry tales of Kano Singer Market porters

Abdul Aminu, a father of three, usually wakes up as early as 4.30am to get prepared for the day’s job at Singer market where he works as a porter popularly known in Hausa as ‘Dan Dako’ who offloads goods. However, it is pitiful to see young people working as porters in the market labouring in the scorching sun for a meagre amount of money, all in a bid to earn a living.

Abdul said it took him eight months to get full accreditation as a porter in the market. According to him, despite the nature of their jobs, many able-bodied youths jostle to get registered every day. He attributed that to the lack of job opportunities in the country.

Sadly, at a point when the minimum wage is N30,000, porters like Abdul earn far less than the minimum wage. Their job is to unload the supplied goods from trucks to the stores and load goods from the store to the trucks.

However, despite the economic trend, these porters live on what is termed ‘slave wage’. Over the years, they have witnessed insignificant increase in their wages to as low as N3 per carton of goods unloaded or N30 per 50kg bag of goods loaded.

A visit to the market revealed that most of these porters are usually married and perhaps with children but are found to be at the lowest level of the wage earners, as they barely live “from hand to mouth”.

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It was gathered that they have devised a means to maximize their daily earnings by grouping themselves into a 10-man group or above. According to Usman Nura, a leader of one of the groups, the rationale behind the grouping is to enable them upload more trucks in a day.

“We are paid from N3 up to N8, to unload a carton of sweet, biscuit, soap or spaghetti from a truck to a store or from the stores to the truck, and sometimes these stores are located upstairs in the market. In some rare cases, some business owners even pay as low as N5 per two cartons,” he said.

Another porter, Bello Pele, revealed that their group of 15 usually loads a truck of 5, 200 cartons at N35,000 and that they share the money among themselves based on hierarchy as some are considered to be of higher hierarchy than others.

“We are a team of 15 labourers unloading 5,200 cartons of sweet at N35,000, or at N8 per carton, this is to maximise our earnings as we will be fast and as such be able to upload more trucks,” he revealed.

However, another porter, Malam Isa Bello, said it sometimes takes their group two days to upload a truck, “We hardly finish a truck in a day, and if we really want to do that, then we have to come to the market very early and also increase our number,” he stated.

He explained that as a porter, he had to work for 15 hours a day to earn N3,500 in two days to fend for his two wives and more than four children.

However, one of the leaders of the porters, Malam Amadu Elvis, said they have been advocating for a raise in their wages but to no avail, taking into consideration the current economic challenges.

“We have been begging the leadership of the market through our informal association to consider our plight and grant our request of increasing the payment but to no avail.

“Whenever we ask for increase, the leaders say they can’t because they get little profit. Our association has been up and doing to get our payment increased but to no avail. We have families. Majority of us are married and we solely depend on this job,” he appealed.

Attempts to get the market authorities to speak on the issue proved abortive as it was revealed that the leadership of the market was newly elected and has not resumed yet. However, a source close to the newly elected leadership told our reporter that the increment of porters’ wages is one of the first things the new leadership will look into.

“The association had transmitted their request for the wage increase to the Amalgamated Traders Association in the market, but their request was halted following the launch of new association, Singer Market Development Association (SIMDA) and the new leadership hasn’t resumed yet,” said the source.

A copy of the request transmitted to the market association and obtained by Daily Trust Saturday shows that the porters had requested a raise of wages from N30 per 50kg bag to N100 per 50kg bag.

However, the Kano wing of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), while reacting to the issue, said it can’t act on matters that were not formally conveyed to it.

The NLC state chapter chairman, Comrade Kabiru Inuwa, said the labour union cannot intervene in the impasse without being formally informed by the labourers’ association.

It was also revealed that due to the nature of their tasks, some of these uploaders engage in the use of drugs. Some of them abuse drugs and substances as a result of overuse of energy enhancing drugs or drinks.

One of the porters, who spoke to our reporter on condition of anonymity, said because their task requires energy, many have taken to energy enhancing drugs, adding that unfortunately some now abuse such drugs.