By Victor Ahiuma-Young
RECENTLY, activists and other Nigerians gathered at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, for a public lecture and book presentation to mark the golden birthday celebration of General Secretary of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade John Ehoja Odah. The event afforded activists to x-ray the state of the nation where they resolved to intensify the struggles to build a society that is founded on principles of social justice among others.

In an opening remarks, Chairman of the committee of friends that put the event together, Comrade Peters Adeyemi, said the struggle to build a better society for Nigerians based on the principles of social justice, equality among others, should not be overemphasized.

According to him: “The story of this struggle for transformative leadership, of the quest to build a society that is founded on principles of social justice and of the desire to enthrone egalitarian principles, is a potent illustration of the quality of character, commitment, nationalism and philosophy that our nation, no doubt, needs at this moment to be able to embolden the pillars of our democratic institutions.”

“The atmosphere of relative freedom that we have today and the degree of compliance to democratic practices, as poor as it may be, are direct results of the contributions of Comrade Odah and others. I urge all of us in the progressive community to connect ourselves properly to the core arteries of the movement so as to extract concrete results and victories for our country and movement.

We must all strive to go beyond, just idle listeners or merely giving expression to our agonies and frustrations resulting from bad leadership. We must be active actors in the political process and that task is now more than ever before a fundamental responsibility. If we are a nation that is willing to literally get out of the woods; we need then be ready to check the excesses of our politicians who are determined to do everything to rig election in order to stay in office. 2011 therefore offers us the opportunity to really defend our rights and show our patriotism.”

NLC doubts credible polls in 2011

Speaking, President of NLC, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, said the utterances by the nation’s political class and their body languages are indications that Nigerians need to do more to ensure credible polls in 2011, saying “it is becoming obvious that the appointment of Attahiru Jega alone, would not ensure the desired credible elections.”

He faulted the retention of most of the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), whose names resonated loudly in the charade that characterized the 2007 general elections and declared such act in the current dispensation did not engender confidence in an already badly traumatized electoral system.

According to him: “ The fact that our new set of electoral legislations, which were recently passed into law by Mr. President, do not sufficiently address these concerns is a reminder to every progressive and patriot that the battle for genuine electoral reform and credible elections in Nigeria is far from over.”

“More worrisome is the body language of our politicians as the clock ticks closer to the 2011 general polls. The unnecessary confusion and delay in enacting the recently concluded constitutional amendments is a pointer to the inherent capacity of most of our politicians to use every trick in the books to frustrate the credible conduct of 2011 elections.

This same misguided attitude and mischief was displayed by some members of the National Assembly before INEC could get approval for the budget it needed to conduct a fresh voters’ registration exercise and 2011 elections. We are obviously in doubt that we all on the same page as far as ensuring that we redeem our heavily battered electoral image.

We must successfully deal with the assassins of our nationhood if the lofty dreams of achieving free, fair and credible election would materialize in 2011, otherwise, we should get ready to sing once more the dirge of the chronicles of a death foretold.”