LAGOS—PRIVATE sector unions in the country warned weekend that Thursday’s arrest of two officials of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) at the National Assembly while distributing leaflets on NLC response to President Obasanjo Labour Reform Bill now before the lawmakers was a dangerous omen. The unions said arresting people in such circumstance at the National Assembly was a pointer that the nation's democratic experiment was no longer safe.
At the end of a second meeting of the junior and senior staff unions in the private sector in less than one month, they resolved that immediate mobilization of all workers in the private sector should commence to resist the implementation of the new Pension Act recently signed into law.
President of National Union of Shops and Distributive Employees (NUSDE), Comrade Bright Anokwuru who chaired the meeting held at the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE) Secretariat, Lagos, said the private sector unions viewed the manner and reason for the arrest of the NLC officials at the National Assembly premises as the height of dictatorship.
Reading the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, Comrade Anokwuru who is also the National Auditor of NLC, said members saw the “behaviour of the police and the State Security Service (SSS) who effected the arrest as not only condemnable, but a threat to the nation’s fledgling democracy.
"It is people's right to express their feelings to others. The government has presented a bill to members of the National Assembly, why should the government now prevent people from expressing their feelings about it? This singular act of the executive on the premises of the National Assembly is a threat to the nation’s democracy.
"The introduction of arrest in the National Assembly premises in the manner the two NLC officials were arrested is a pointer that the nation’s democracy is no longer safe. It is barbaric, undemocratic and against all known civilized behaviour. Nigerians should stand up and condemn this attack on our hard earned democracy.
"Most of the people in power today did not fight for this democracy and therefore, they will not hesitate to collapse it. Some of the things happening now never happened in the dark days of military regimes. Therefore, Nigerians should be aware and get prepared.
“The meeting-session rejected in its entirety, the executive Labour Reform Bill now before the National Assembly as it is not reflective of the opinion of all the stakeholders. All in all, labour is not opposed to reforms or changes. These are natural imperative about society and developments. But reforms must be people-oriented".
