Labour, CSOs plan nationwide protest against corruption, September 10

as NLC reiterates opposition to privatisation of public assets

Coalition of Labour and Civil Society Organisations will on Thursday, September 10, 2015, hold a ‘solidarity protest action’ against the incidences of escalating corruption in our public life, as well as protest against the high cost of governance in Nigeria.

The resolution was contained in the communiqué co-signed by Ayuba Wabba and Peter Ozo-Eson, NLC president and general secretary, which was issued at the end of the three-day Leadership retreat of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) held at Calabar, Cross River State.

To this end, the Congress beckoned on various professional, religious and interest groups including Students, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), ICAN, Society of Engineers and traders to join the protest “intended to give a red card to corruption and impunity of the ruling elites in the country.

“In this direction, the Retreat endorsed the decision of the National Leadership of Congress to declare September 10, 2015 as a Day of Solidarity Protest Action against the incidences of escalating corruption in our public life, as well as protest against the high cost of governance in this country.

“The retreat further resolved to call on all stakeholders in the Nigerian project to join the NLC and its allies to massively turn out on this day, and send a clear message to our political elites that Nigerians would not continue to allow very few greedy and unpatriotic members of the ruling elite to continue with the high level of corruption in our country, as well as the unsustainable high cost of governance, with a huge amount of our earnings going to pay the wages and allowances of political office holders, to the detriment of developmental projects, and developmental aspirations of the vast majority of our citizens,” the communiqué read.

While expressing concerns over the outcome of various policies and programmes of the past administrations, the Congress lamented that the “ruling bourgeois class in Nigeria will continue to run the country in their own class interest as long as the working classes do not organize and challenge their class domination of the affairs of the country.

“As long as the working people of Nigeria don’t organize politically as a class that has a distinct interest which is not the same as those of the ruling elite, then the working class would continue to watch the Nigerian ruling class sell our collective national assets cheaply to themselves and members of their class as can be seen in the privatization of our major Hotels, Nitel, PHCN, Steel Rolling Mills and other commonly owned assets/corporations, as well as the no-going clamour to privatize the remaining commonwealth like the NNPC, among others.

“In the same vein, the working class will continue to witness withdrawal of so-called subsidies on our God-given national endowment like petroleum products; commercialization of social services like education, health care; and non-provision of social housing”, among others.

On the crisis of unemployment and job creation in the country, all the participants resolved that the NLC Leadership should review and fine tune its position presented to the 2009 tripartite National employment summit which the Federal Government organized with technical support from the International Labour Organization.

They noted that the Federal Government’s “new position should take into consideration, the final report of the Employment Summit which pledged that 4-5 million jobs would be created annually between then and 2020; and the campaign promise of the new APC government at the Federal level to create three million jobs annually.”

In the bid to challenge anti-workers policies, the Congress called on the working people to unite around the Congress, and for the Congress leadership to take as a major priority the revival and repositioning of the Labour Party to champion the political aspirations of the working people of Nigeria.

They also called for the rebuilding of the Labour Party to have stronghold in all corners of the country, and to be firmly rooted in working class ideology, which should include among others, canvassing for full employment, living (minimum) wage, maximum work week, public ownership of industry and the commanding heights of the economy, progressive taxation, expansion of social services, qualitative, free education, qualitative and affordable health care, qualitative mass housing, among others.”

Participants at the retreat comprising Presidents and General Secretaries of Industrial Unions as well as CSOs leaders, serving members of the National Assembly of NLC extraction, leaders of the Labour Party also enjoined both Labour and Civil Society counterparts to strive towards broader understanding of the workings and operational dynamics of each of the component parts of the movement in order to build a stronger cooperation framework that will stand the test of time.

“In medium to long term, the Congress should work for the Labour Party to form a grand alliance and/or fusion with other like Minded Political Parties, with similar Political Programmes, like the National Conscience Party (NCP), the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), the Democratic Alternative (DA), and other such Political formations.

“The fusion of the various left of the centre Political Parties will give the Party real impetus to act as a formidable alternative to the dominancy of the political space by the two bourgeois parties – the PDP and APC.”