Arms deal: Civil society plans sustained protests with labour

The days ahead may be witnessing sustained protests by civil society groups partnering the organised labour to demand full prosecution in the unfolding revelations of how public funds were siphoned by persons in the corridor of power and their collaborators outside government.

Baba Aye, national convener of United Action for Democracy (UAD), told BusinessDay that they would be collaborating labour unions to insist that the “high and mighty” linked to the looting were not left off the hook in view of the death of many innocent Nigerians in the hands of Boko Haram insurgents.

“The revelation of how $2.2 billion ostensibly meant for the purchase of arms for the military in its campaign against the Boko Haram insurgency was allegedly criminally disbursed through the Office of the National Security Adviser is mindboggling. The spectrum of the identified collaborators in this crime against the people also speaks volumes. High ranking PDP stalwarts, traditional rulers and religious leaders, all wetted their shameless beaks in the putrid feast of rot, sleaze and megabucks,” he said.

The group argued that there was no tenable excuse not to fully bring those involved to justice, adding that the “excuses tendered thus far point to the fact that these leaders consider Nigerians as fools.

“UAD fully supports the Nigeria Labour Congress’ (NLC) position that all those involved in this despicable ‘armsgate’ deserve no less than death. We call for the maximum sentence possible to be meted out to them. We have witnessed several persons hitherto found guilty of stealing billions of naira walk away after a few years in jail and get state pardon thereinafter.

“This brings us to a fact that the APC under present situation might subtly be aiming at our overlooking. Corruption has been and remains part and parcel of the politics and economics of all the parties of the bosses in Nigeria. It is time to beam the searchlight on all questionable disbursements of trillions of naira across the length and breadth of Nigeria, including in states that have been under the control of the APC and the parties that merged to form it in 2013,” said Aye.

He noted that in the coming days, civil society organisations would be taking up the gauntlet of looking beyond the current masquerade to doing everything possible to further unmask more looters of the nation’s treasury.

“The need to fight for system change has never been as critical before, as it is now. Trade unions and radical civil society must wake up to the challenge of fighting for real change. This would entail deepening democracy through struggle, with working class-people power,” the group said.