JOINT Action Front, JAF, umbrella body for pro-labour civil society groups in the country, has called on Nigerian workers to be in the vanguard of the struggle for a system change as they join their counterparts across the world to mark today May Day celebration, otherwise known as “Workers Day.”

In a message to the Nigerian workers, JAF lamented that Nigerian workers been subjected to untold hardship created by the present corrupt system.

In a statement by Dipo Fashina and Aremu, JAF Chairpersonand Secretary, respectively, the group argued that “workers re daily retrenched, unemployment continues to grow and prices of goods and services are rising, arguing that none of the public and private employers is paying the Minimum Wage according to the spirit and letter of the 2011 Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act. The above are some of the hardships created by the present corrupt system. The lesson of the January 2012 protest led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and JAF is that a struggle for system change is a legitimate struggle that workers should not shy away from.

The January protest could not achieve the set goal of fuel price reversal to N65 because the leadership of the protest, in the absence of a political platform of the working people and the poor, succumbed to the blackmail and threats of militarisation and violence by the  presidency and the Governors’ Forum.”

“On this 2012 May Day, JAF calls on the Nigerian workers and working people generally to embrace and support the struggle for system change, which has become inevitable in the light of the recently released Report on Oil Subsidy’s thieves by the House of Representatives and the desperation by the ruling cabals and their associates to undermine the prosecution of the subsidy rogues indicted in the report.

The main challenge before the Nigerian workers is the unjust system and JAF has consistently maintained that system change should be the goal. Nigerians have no option but to struggle for change and the Nigerian workers also have no option but to lead the fight for system change.”

JAF added that “Privatisation, Deregulation, Commercialisation, Concessioning, subsidies withdrawal and devaluation of the Naira are the real issues in promoting and sustaining corruption. These policies called economic reform or transformation agenda by successive regimes are aimed at looting our collective wealth. Nigerian workers and the working people need to rise above the present anger for the prosecution of the oil thieves.

We have passed through similar routes before (power probe, etc) with shocking revelation but none of the culprit has been prosecuted to date. If the Nigerian workers are to genuinely fight corruption and ensure just governance, we must be prepared for a struggle that should seek to rid away the unjust system that is responsible for corruption.”