Democracy Day: NLC Score President Low

As the country celebrates another Democracy Day, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said that the federal government has not done enough to alleviate the poverty and suffering of Nigerians.

This was contained in a communique issued at the end of the NLC's National Executive Council meeting yesterday in Abuja and signed by its national president, Abdulwaheed Omar.

Omar said, "Although, the economy is said to have recorded a growth rate of about 7 per cent, it has created few or no jobs, leading to an all-time high unemployment records. Whereas official figures put unemployment rate at 24 per cent, there are indicators to believe that the actual estimate could be as high as 60 per cent or higher. Nearly all of our employable youths remain unemployed, constituting a veritable army of the hungry, disillusioned and angry with great potential for undermining the peace and security of the nation."

"Critical infrastructure continue to decay just as power generation continues to dip. Government's promises in the power sector, especially in power generation and distribution have been observed in the breach. Non-budgetary provision for power supply has worsened the power situation, in spite of unjustifiable high tariffs."

The NLC president also decried the rising communal and sectarian violence across the country, saying that the development contributes in no small way to undermining the national productive industrial and agricultural capacity.

According to him, last year's floods and potential for more floods this year have probable effect of undermining food security.

According to Omar, government still has a great role to play in reversing this trend. It cannot afford the luxury of leaving the economy to market forces, as no reasonable government does that, he said. There must be an affirmative declaration by government to create jobs, he added.

The communiqué reads in part: "Similarly, government is invited to intervene in critical industries (by way of intervention funds and policy) to sustain and create jobs.

"Government should ensure there is adequate power supply to meet national needs through the design and execution of a seamless transition in its power reform programme."

Speaking on the insecurity in the country, he said: "Rising security challenges continues to threaten the sovereignty, unity and productive capacity of the country. Congress is concerned not only by the extent of the waste of human lives but by the audacity and viciousness of the perpetrators.

"Whereas, poverty, disease, illiteracy and indoctrination cannot be divorced from these serial acts of violence, the immediate trigger are the injustices inherent in our electoral process, distribution of wealth, corruption, unemployment, impunity and bad governance."

The labour union however re-affirmed its belief in the in-alienability, inviolability and sovereignty of Nigeria.

The NLC president also said in spite of the law on the new minimum wage, the signed agreements with state governments and the passage of time, some state governments have not fully implemented the minimum wage law.

He added that, in most states, teachers and local government workers are the victims. "Congress considers this not only an affront to the law but an assault on workers and accordingly condemns this selective implementation of the law. Congress will mobilise workers in the affected states to compel governments to pay. Meanwhile, it gives its unalloyed support to the proposed action on the matter by members of the National Union of Teachers," he said

On the controversies trailing the election in the Nigeria Governors' Forum, the NLC president said it is regrettable that the governors under the NGF cannot organise themselves in a simple democratic process.

He said: "Congress therefore refuses to believe that governors who are themselves beneficiaries of supposedly credible elections cannot organise a simple election among themselves, a class of 36. This presupposes that something fundamentally must have gone wrong somewhere. Whatever it is, the governors and their fellow travellers in power should quickly fix it. As critical custodians of the people's mandate and grand beneficiaries of our democracy, there are certain things governors must not be seen to be doing.

"We at the Congress irrevocably stand for certain values which we will not compromise for anything. We are opposed to impunity at all levels and the undermining of national security and unity. We have respect for process and its outcome. We stand for justice.

"In the light of the foregoing, we call on our governors to: create value around as well as restore dignity to their office; get back to work instead of unnecessarily overheating the polity; not put in jeopardy our hard-earned democracy; respect the process and outcome of their election."



Leadership