By Victor Ahiuma-Young

ABUJA—NIGERIA Labour Congress, NLC, has called on the Judiciary to be prepared for courageous responsibilities in 2011 ahead of the general elections, saying the Judiciary had become a redeeming agency.

IN a New Year message to Nigerians, NLC noted that 2010 was demanding for Nigerians as it began with the uncertainty about the health of late President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and endied with the insane massacres in Jos which came few months after the 50th Independence Anniversary bombings in Abuja.

President of NLC, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, in the message, however, urged Nigerians to make the country work in 2011, saying the “general elections hold a lot of promise for the country, especially the promise that the people would choose freely their leaders for the next four years.”

In the message, titled “Our duty is to make Nigeria what we want it to be”, NLC called on the elite not to politicize the Jos crimes, arguing that “bombing innocent people has no basis in religion, regionalism or politics and that government has the duty to bring the culprits to justice.”

Congress noted that the Judiciary had become a redeeming agency, delivering justice and ensuring that the political will of the people, as expressed through their votes, prevailed, stressing that “the 2011 elections will pose new challenges and we appeal to the Judiciary to be prepared and courageous enough to deliver justice.”

“The continuation of the Amnesty Programme in 2010 saw to relative peace in the Niger Delta.  But the fundamental challenges of sustainable development and mass unemployment for the youths of the area remain.

In 2011, the Federal Government need to meet most of these challenges as well as those posed by the fundamentalists of Boko Haram, and the criminals who have made street bombings, kidnapping and armed robbery their profession. We appeal to government to employ more of intelligence work than the physical combat of crimes. This is more so when the criminals are getting more sophisticated.”

According to him: “ The 2011 General Elections hold a lot of promise for the country; promise that the people will choose freely their leaders for the next four years.  While the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has the onerous task of conducting free and fair elections, it is our collective duty as Nigerians to ensure that it succeeds.

It is our responsibility to ensure that our votes count, that security agencies carry out their duty of ensuring free elections and that politicians who seek to heat up the polity with messages of hate, intolerance and divisiveness are not allowed to lead the country at any level. The NLC demands of the political class to be issue-based rather than seek to personalize politics. We also call on the people to fully participate in the entire process: from voter registration to actual election and governance.”

“The quality of governance at all tiers and levels of government is still very low; many local governments have simply become sharing centres where monthly allocations are apportioned to various political interests.

Yet local governments are designed to be the closest tier of government to the people. Many state governors also indulge more in propaganda than meeting their basic obligations to the populace.

The year 2011 should be a year Nigerians begin to insist on their sovereignty over all levels of power.
The judiciary has become a redeeming agency; delivering justice and ensuring that the political will of the people as expressed through their votes prevails.  The 2011 elections will pose new challenges and we appeal to the judiciary to be prepared and courageous enough to deliver justice.

As part of transparency, the NLC called on the National Assembly to pass the Freedom of Information Bill and to open its financial books to public scrutiny.  It should cut drastically its jumbo pay packet.

“If the parliament is not transparent, it cannot effectively exercise its oversight functions without fear or favour.”