NLC, TUC, Falana blame political elites for Nigerian woes

Coalition of organised labour and civil society organisations in Nigeria on Thursday blamed political elites for the socio-economic woes bedevilling the country.

Ayuba Wabba, President Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) who spoke at the world press briefing on the ‘State of the Nation’, frowned at the “drum beats of war,” fuelled by some Nigerians.

On his part, Femi Falana, a Lagos based disclosed the man sponsoring the Northern groups ‘quit notice’ is currently based in Lagos.

“This information is very crucial to all of us and I want to say this publicly, the man who is giving quit notice does not live in the North, he lives in Lagos, he is a Lagos man. So to stay in Lagos and be giving quit notices is not the answer,” Falana noted, just as he urged Nigerians to be wary of such unpatriotic citizen.

Wabba who decried the degeneration of the national conversation into threats and counter-threats of pulling down the federation by desperate and other forces, urged well-meaning Nigerians to synergize towards an indivisible country.

“We will continue to therefore underscore the need for good governance in our country as a basis for any realistic development and eventual emancipation of our people. If the resources available to us as a nation were well managed and not stolen by both the corrupt public and  private sector operators, the escalating problems of (youth) unemployment, decaying infrastructure, non-funding of education, health and other social services, would have been adequately addressed.

“In our estimation, most of the issues in contention can be resolved through good governance, sustainable and transparent fight against corruption and addressing inequities and injustice in the system.

“We are still committed to these values that our forebears were committed to and we  call on all committed patriots, young and old, to join the struggle against the myriad of social and economic injustices that occasioned the deprivations which have set our people in dangerous agitations against one another in the social, print and electronic media.

“Our common enemy, and whom we must all resolve to face, remains the corrupt political class, who instead of utilising the God-endowed wealth of our nation, choose to loot it for themselves and their children thereby depriving us of decent living and inflicting on us a scarred collective psychology that is predominantly negative, hostile and unproductive.

“On our part as Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and civil society, we are determined to stop our elites and their lackeys from throwing us as a nation into another avoidable civil war.

“Comrades, by no stretch of the imagination should anyone blame the escalating social and economic injustice, the poor living conditions of our people, the inability of the state to pay a living wage or even ensure the payment of salaries as at when due, the massive unemployment, our lack of productivity as a result of de-industrialisation, the galloping inflation in our land, the devaluation of our currency, among many other lows, on the structure of our federation. Instead it is inherent in the character of our ruling elite who have moderated our political economy for about two decades.

“We should therefore look at positive options – peaceful, rigorous and altruistic of reforming the system of choosing or electing our political leadership in a way that when elected, they will remain answerable to us, to the public good,” the NLC helmsman urged.

Speaking further, Femi Falana, Lagos based Human Right Activist who urged Nigerians to be wary of antics by the political class to fuel discord within the polity, stressed the need to concretize the issues of federalism and pokitical and economic restructuring.

He said: “on the National Conference, please those who are talking of restructuring, many of them are talking in the air. We must concretize this debate now. You can’t have political restructuring without economic restructuring. If you are talking of restructuring you won’t be selling the assets of a country to individuals. How can a serious nation be giving serious items to individuals when states are broke? You are not giving what belong to the states to them, states are not buying the electricity companies!”

Falana who kicked against some policies of the present administration including: provision of palliatives for already privatised public assets, emphasised the need for implementation of Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which confers on the State to prioritise provision of social services.

“Please Mr President, you have just informed us that what is owed to pension those who served our fatherland is N300 billion. Just this week, the Federal Government has just released N700 billion to those who bought our electricity companies, are you not aware? Initially they were given N300 billion, that’s over a trillion naira to manage darkness in our country. So let us begin to ask the relevant questions.

“On the National Conference, I beg you, don’t be carried away. Power is not given without a fight. Those who want implementation of the recommendations should be prepared for struggle like the labour and the struggle by the civil society. The most important recommendation is never touched by the ruling class, which is what the President of the NLC has just addressed our minds to.

“It is Chapter 2 of the Constitution that the fundamental objectives of the state shall be made justiceable in order words, right to education, right to life, right to employment benefits, right to living minimum wage. These are all centre in that chapter. This who are talking of restructuring and federalism are not interested in these. But please all of us must remind them that the Awolowos, the Ahmadu Bello’s when we have the First Republic addressed social services of our people. That is no longer the case,” Falana said.

While reacting to the clarion calls for restructuring, Falana said: “this talk about restructuring, we must concretize it, this talk about federalism, we must concretize it. You can’t be coming to Abuja every month to collect money and you are talking of true federalism. True federalism means you must produce what you need in your area ad they can ask everybody to pay tax,” the legal luminary urged.

 

KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja