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May Day: We’ll Support Any Candidate Who Priortises Workers’ Welfare – NLC, TUC

Published

2 years ago

May 1, 2022

Editor

The Nigeria Labour Congress NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC, have said they would gladly trade their voting rights to any candidate or political party that would prioritise the welfare of workers in the country.

Part of other conditions outlined by the unions at their May Day festivities, which were held at the Eagle Square, Abuja on Sunday, is that their charter of demands must be met.

For the 2023 general elections, the organised labour specifically boosted that they have over 16 million block votes cutting across workers, pensioners and other circles of influence in the country.

They equally vowed to ensure Nigerians no longer suffer social injustices as a result of the action or inaction of governments, by proceeding to mobilise the citizenry against any poorly performing government without waiting for elections to vote them out.

In a joint address read by President of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba and President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Comrade Quadri Olaleyi, listed the core labour issues still confronting Nigerian workers and the masses to include; the failure of some state governments to implement the national minimum wage especially Abia, Taraba, Cross River and Zamfara states.

Other core issues also listed were: abuse and humiliation meted out at pensioners; decent work deficits; violation of human, workers and trade union rights; and the consistent and unabating industrial crisis in the university system involving academic and non academic staff unions.

Labour said: “It must be our collective endeavour to put the Workers’ Charter of Demands at the front burner of 2023 politics. We can make this happen by mobilizing every Nigeria worker and pensioner to get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) ready.

“We must be ready to engage political parties especially working class friendly parties and progressive political interests across the country to ensure that a significant number of candidates who would be for elective positions in 2023 subscribe to the provisions of our Charter.

“Beyond engaging the politics of 2023 general elections, Nigerian workers just accept partisan politics as a fundamental way of life for the protection, survival and flourishing of the working class.

“We will no longer wait for elections to mobilize Nigerians to take charge of the destiny of the destiny of their country. We will be more proactive and pronounced in the daily political undertakings of our country. We will mobilize the Nigerian people to monitor and engage the performance of those we elect into political offices. We will match the performance metrics of the political class against Workers’ Charter of Demands. Their readings on our scale will determine the swing of the pendulum of workers’balot.

“Pursuant to the foregoing, organised labour is energizing it’s structures down to the grassroots. We are facilitating the emergence of a progressive pro-Nigerian Workers’ political coalition. If your political party is truly progressive and worker friendly, you will be discussing with us. The over 16 million block votes of Nigerian workers, pensioners, our families and other circles of influence will go to political parties and candidates that assure us that the dreams of Nigerian workers and people would no longer be treated as governance addendum or as objects to be trampled under.”

Labour further noted that after a series of serious discussions with progressive political parties and groups in the country, it has resolved to rescue Nigerians from the “grips of continuous misrule and bad governance,” through its political party, the Labour Party.

“Workers can no longer play the ostrich while a section of our professional political class play the roulette with the welfare of workers and the destiny of our country. History will be very unkind to us if we continue to stay outside the rings of politics and trust that our placards and protests will change the ironclad determination of many of our politicians bent on looting, enslaving and leaving in their wake smokes of destitution and despondency. Given the scale of disappointing returns on governance and national development, we must now do the needful.

“There is no better time than now to enter the political rings and engage more vigorously with the questions of our collective survival as a people and as a working class who produce the wealth that the political class squanders at whim.

“Instead of engaging in the issues of physical security, social protection, decent wages, unemployment and poverty eradication, fixing the economy, our politicians are more interested in zoning of political offices and threatening the peace of our country which is already greatly imperiled. Clearly it is a failed political class that would wish to keep the masses, workers and the daily socio-economic struggles we face as footnotes in the 2023 political agenda,” both unions insisted.

News

2023: Why INEC Servers Failed To Work – Peter Obi

Published

4 hours ago

May 5, 2024

Editor

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi has explained why the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, servers failed to work during the 2023 presidential election.

He said the ‘establishment of criminality’ made the INEC servers not work during the last last general elections.

Obi stated this, while addressing the issues of the 2023 elections, including the IREV servers, in Canada during the weekend.

The Labour Party flagbearer in 2023 said people must intensify engagement with all the stakeholders to make the system work.

The former Anambra State governor explained that Amazon testified there were no glitches recorded globally on the day of the presidential election.

He said: “Where did we go wrong in the last election? We didn’t go wrong anywhere. We did the right things.

“But as I can always tell people: when you bring a change, you fight all those who live off the old order. They don’t go away; they gang up. And don’t think it’s a straight race to remove an establishment.

“It’s a long-distance journey anywhere in the world. Go and check anywhere, whether you are looking at what happened in India, with Mandela in South Africa, or America. No change has happened overnight, it takes time.

“I urge all of you, if you really want change, we have just begun. We just have to continue from where we are.

“Yes, there might be one or two things we will correct, those things we will correct. I assure you we are correcting them without naming them.It’s not going to be easy.”

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INC Vows To Internationalise Ijaw Struggle

Published

5 hours ago

May 5, 2024

Editor

The Ijaw National Congress (INC) says time has come to internationalise the “Ijaw struggle” beyond rhetoric.

Prof. Benjamin Okaba, President, INC, said this in a communique of the 2024 edition of the Ijaw National Day celebration held in Bayelsa.

Okaba said that the vexatious factors that provoked grievances between the late Maj. Adaka Boro and the federal government in the improper management of the oil political economy of Nigeria, have remained unmitigated.

He noted that the situation had worsened with its attendant impunity.

According to him, the Ijaw environment continues to bear the brunt of petroleum resources exploitation-related pollution without concomitant remediation or reparations of the heavily despoiled ecosystem.

“Instead, Ijaw communities still face the adverse effects of uncontrollable spills, perennial flooding, ocean encroachment and so on,” he said.

The INC president noted that at different forums, it had been made clear that the Ijaw agenda of self-determination was premised on resource and environmental justice.

“What all Ijaw people seek is for a fair, just and justifiable reward for our resources and sacrifices.

“The Ijaw Congress has articulated a set of prescient conditions for its continuous commitment to the Nigerian project and these include restoration of true federalism (fiscal federalism).

“Devolution of power and repel of all obnoxious and discriminatory environmental and resource related laws (Land Use, PIA), as well as restoration of Ijaw Territory as non-balkanised, administrative and politically generated unit(s).

“This is for the reassurance and promotion of Ijaw developmental pursuits by creating at least two additional states, more local government areas and wards for the Ijaws.

“Remediation of our massively polluted and endangered environment and the enforcement of adherence to international environmental best practices by IOC’s operating in Ijaw territories,” he said.

Okaba also demanded for the relocation of the administrative headquarters of all oil companies and their subsidiaries to their operational bases in Ijaw territory and Niger Delta.

He further called for proper funding and management of the Interventionist Agencies such as the Presidential Amnesty Programme and Niger Delta Development Commission.

“We call for the promotion of modular refineries owned by our people.

“We also want a balance in appointment at the federal levels (the civil service, military and oil companies) as well as equitable distribution of critical infrastructure, to reflect the true principles of federal character.”

He said it was against this backdrop that the theme of the 2024 Ijaw National Day “Re-Invigorating Our Resolve to take the Ijaw struggle for Self-determination beyond Rhetoric” was derived.

News

Drake Gives Condition To Quit Music As Feud With Kendrick Lamar Thickens

Published

5 hours ago

May 5, 2024

Editor

US rapper Drake has vowed to quit his music career if allegations regarding a secret daughter are substantiated.

The controversy started when rival artiste Kendrick Lamar, in his diss track ‘Meet The Grahams,’ levied accusations suggesting Drake’s involvement with an 11-year-old secret daughter.

Lamar branded the Canadian rapper a “deadbeat” for purportedly neglecting his paternal responsibilities

Renowned American media personality Akademiks, however, disclosed rapper’s response to the allegations during a recent broadcast.

According to Akademiks, Drake denied the claims, going as far as promising to leave the music industry and work for Akademiks if any evidence of the alleged secret daughter emerged.

During his Saturday night show, Akademiks shared the rapper’s direct message, stating, “Drake hit [texted] me, he said, ‘Ak, if you or anybody can prove that I have an 11-year-old daughter, I’ll quit rapping and come work for you.’”