By Victor Ahiuma-Young

LAGOS — NIGERIA Labour Congress, NLC, and the Action Congress, AC, yesterday, criticised the Federal Government’s decision to hold a summit on the nation’s 50 years of independence in London, describing it as wasteful and unpatriotic.

Labour said the government’s decision to hold a two-day summit on the anniversary was the height of unpatriotism and disgrace.

Summit irrational,unnecessary —NLC
A statement by the NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, said Labour was convinced that the London Summit was irrational and unnecessary.

The statement said: “The leadership of the NLC is again troubled by the apparent lack of nationalism on the part of our political leadership by choosing to hold a two-day conference on Nigeria’s 50th Independence anniversary in London from today, Monday, June 28 to June 29, 2010.

While we had earlier condemned the over N10 billion budget for the celebration, we are convinced that the London Summit planned by the Federal Government is more irrational and totally unnecessary given the huge state resources that would be used to host it.

“According to media reports, about 18 state governors and over a dozen ministers as well as officials from key agencies of government will be attending the summit. What this implies is that huge resources at both the state and federal levels would be wasted on travel expenses for this project that obviously has no relevance to a realistic transformation of our economy.

“Perhaps other than to display our linkage to our colonial heritage, we believe that it is highly illogical for our leaders to take a ceremony of our golden jubilee independence anniversary to the capital of the country that forcefully imposed itself on us for well over a century of exploitation and oppression.”

NLC urged President Goodluck Jonathan to “use this moment to concretely deepen our democracy by discouraging acts of frivolity that this London Summit represents. It is clearly a meaningless summit at the expense of dearly needed resources that should instead be used to fund people-centred projects and policies.”

AC queries rationale
The AC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the London summit was a jamboree and “a wilful wastage of scarce national resources.”

The party said the London summit was an insult to millions of Nigerians who were daily struggling to make ends meet, adding that it highlighted the insensitivity of those at the helm of affairs in the country.

It said: “The times we are in are very tough, and even richer nations are cutting costs in all areas. Nigeria cannot be an exception. We must find a way to slash the cost of running governments at all levels, so that we can channel our scarce resources into improving the living standards of our long-suffering people. This is the essence of governance.”