BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

NIGERIA Labour Congress, NLC, has advised the Federal Government to rethink its poverty-inducing policies such as the proposed astronomical increases in the prices of petrol and a 50-100 percent hike in electricity tariff.

President of NLC, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar in a statement to mark Nigeria’s 51st Independence anniversary, faulted government abandonment of its responsibilities to the private sector, arguing that “the private sector is profit–driven and no country has developed on the basis of benevolence from private sector.”

NLC lauded “the resilience of Nigerians to have come thus far despite difficult challenges mainly due to mis-governance and misuse of our resources over the decades. Even when many foreign countries and analysts predict that the country is on the brink, Nigerians have always bounced back. We all have a duty to rebuild our country and move it towards paths that would be beneficial to the populace.  This is why the fixation that the private sector is the engine room of the country’s development must be abandoned for a people-oriented policy.”

“Contrary to claims that government has no business in business, we need government building primary infrastructure and providing the basic needs of the people.  The private sector is profit–driven and no country has developed on the basis of benevolence from private sector.

“What is the use of government if it cannot provide welfare and protection for the citizenry? It is in this context that the NLC has advised government to rethink its poverty-inducing policies such as the proposed astronomical increases in the prices of petrol and a 50-100 percent hike in electricity tariff.”

According to the statement, “The Labour Movement is also committed to the full investigation of the privatization racket. Those who committed crimes against the Nigerian people in this programme of prodigals will be brought to justice. On this reflective occasion, we also caution against the creation of more states which is simply the multiplication of the parasitic bureaucracy.

“It is paralogical for a country with very low production capacity and so much poverty to increase the number of governors, government Houses, Commissioners, Special Advisers and Advisers to Special Advisers in the name of state creation.”

“Also, those who seek to emasculate Labour by moving it from the exclusive to Concurrent List in the guise of constitution amendment will be stoutly resisted. We will never allow a situation where state and local governments will be allowed to pay Nigerians peanuts in the name of a deregulated Minimum Wage. Nigerians have a right to a better life; our children have the right to a bright future.

“To ensure these, the Labour Movement in concert with other democratic forces in the country, will ensure that the Nigerian child has the right to free, qualitative and compulsory education.  We will strive to ensure that the huge cost of governance is drastically reduced; the fundamental rights of Nigerians are respected and that in practice sovereignty will belong to the Nigerian people from whom all powers must flow.”