Moses John
The organised Labour yesterday warned President Goodluck Jonathan and other politicians to ensure free, fair and credible elections in the 2015 general elections or face the wrath of the Nigerian workers.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, who spoke at the 2014 May Day celebration in Abuja, said it is importance that elections and electioneering processes are transparent and credible.
He insisted that votes must count in 2015 because there is no business running a democracy if votes do not count.
Omar lamented that the problem is not with the electorate but those who seek political powers, adding that the motivation for seeking and the zeal for office is not service but vainglory and self-aggrandisement.
The union leader, while calling for full implementation of the Justice Uwais Report on Electoral Reform, also said workers will no longer fold their hands while fraudulent politicians violated elections and the electoral process.
On the situation in the North-east, the labour leader expressed worry at the state of the nation’s security infrastructure, adding that in spite of the relative huge security votes in the past few years, it is weak and inadequate.
He also condemned the conflicting political interests, ambiguous operational order and primordial sentiments which, according to him, are some of the factors undermining the counter-terror war.
Omar said: “We call for the full implementation of Justice Uwais Report on Electoral Reform. Similarly, we demand that votes count in 2015. We advise politicians to play by the rules or there will be costs. Days are gone when workers folded their hands while fraudulent politicians violated and desecrated electoral process.
“We will no longer be by-standers. Nigerian workers will no longer be indifferent while some people toy with destiny of this country”.
While commenting on the security challenges facing the country at the moment, Omar said it is sad that policy-makers are only interested in making policies in the interest of capital and the ruling class to the detriment of the working people.
He warned that such practices cannot guarantee enduring peace and that the search for sustainable national development will not remain elusive, but a mirage.
On the ongoing National Conference, Omar challenged Nigerians to rise up against retrogressive moves by some agents of governors at the confab to balkanise the labour movement and negate the national minimum wage as enshrined in the Constitution.
On his part, President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Bala Bobboi Kaigama, said it was a good thing Nigeria celebrated its centenary as a nation, but however frowned at some of the ills fought against by the founding fathers of the country and the labour movement are still persisting a hundred years later.
He cited obnoxious colonial policies such as poor wages which led to the general strike of 1945 and others, stressing that such practice is with us today.
He said: “Decades of mismanagement and non-co-operation from successive governments have seen to it that the national minimum wage as at today is still a meagre N18,000, needless to talk about living wage.
“Right from the colonial era to the early post-independence years and through the unfortunate civil war that lasted three years and till date, organised labour has remained one of the few truly pan-national institutions advocating national unity, justice and peace and pointing the way forward.”
The theme of this year’s May Day was “Building Enduring Peace and Unity: Panacea for Sustainable National Development.”