The Nigeria labour congress, NLC, says at 60 years, Nigerians must confer a bigger value on being together as one country.
While felicitating with the country, the NLC said that being together amounts to nothing if the country is not tapping from the wealth of knowledge, experience, and cultural diversity of the Nigerian people.
“…Our togetherness might as well be a liability if we fail to use the political process to achieve national consensus on the Nigeria of our dream, how to construct our dream country and recruitment of an enabling leadership that can midwife our collective developmental aspirations…”
In a statement signed by the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba organised Labour said “… it is a spite on our togetherness, a big disservice to our natural endowments and a huge slap on the resourcefulness of our people if after 60 years Nigeria is still importing toothpick, pencils, and needles from abroad. We make a huge mockery of the biggest assemblage of black people on the planet if at sixty years we are unable to refine our own crude oil…”
Labour said that indeed, Nigeria is the only the OPEC country suffering from this self-inflicted malaise, noting that it is unimaginable that with the abundance of water sources, vast windy terrains, coal, and large deposits of natural gas, Nigeria struggles to generate and distribute up to 5000 megawatts of electricity, a sum insufficient to power some airports abroad.
“…it is sad that at sixty years, our political leaders still prefer to send their children to schools abroad and treat themselves in foreign hospitals since our public schools and hospitals have been so terribly mismanaged. Truly, the message Nigerians especially workers get when our political leaders say that we are together is that we are together to the extent of baking the national cake. When it comes to eating from the cake, Nigerian workers and people are shut out in the cold and rain while those who had forced their way to positions of political leadership corner the collective wealth for themselves and their families alone…”
Labour stressed that it is in light of these reflections on the country’s journey in nationhood that Organized Labour adopted some of the positions taken in the recent engagement and negotiation with government over the increase in the price of petrol and the astronomical hike in electricity tariff.
Labour said it told government that the so-called deregulation cannot just be about incessant increases in the price of refined petroleum products but should be more about the efficient management of the God-given resources especially the oil refineries for the benefit of the Nigerian people especially workers and the poor.
On the issue of hike in electricity tariff, Organized Labour said it pointed out to the government the folly of making a profit of about N400 billion from the sale of electricity assets to private investors and then going ahead to spend N1.5 trillion on an asset that had already been sold, arguing that it clearly justifies the conclusion that the privatization of the power sector was a failure and the recent hike was only an attempt by the government to pass off its own failure in the power sector privatization program to poor Nigerians.
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Mindful of the harmful effect of the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19), Organized Labour said it also used the opportunity offered by the recent negotiation with the government to ensure that workers are not completely left to suffer more by the recent twin harsh policies of the government.
Editor: Ena Agbanoma
