'Why Obasanjo Wants NLC Decentralised'
From Omon-Julius Onabu in Benin-City
A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Emmanuel Arigbe-Osula, has said President Olusegun Obasanjo of preferers dictatorial rule to an ideal participatory democracy hence the current attempt by the president to render the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) impotent and irrelevant in the country.
Arigbe-Osula, who made the allegation while speaking with newsmen in Benin-City, said every discerning Nigeria could see that the president would want all forms of opposition to his government stifled so that he could "pursue his anti-people policies without the kind of challenge that the NLC have been offering."
Describing the National Assembly as "a virtual appendage of the Presidency, instead of being a statutory, independent arm of government of the federation", the only member of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) from Edo State warned that if Obasanjo was allowed to succeed in rendering the NLC irrelevant, through the labour decentralization bill now before the assembly, then the President would turn next to the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ)."
"It is clear the presidency wants to erode the relevance of the NLC, and, once that is achieved - God forbid - the presidency would then turn to the media to erode the body of its relevance in the scheme of things in the country," he stated. He however said the leadership of Labour may have unwittingly played into the trap of the presidency.
"The disturbing question is, why is it that each time there is a strike, the leadership of the NLC always call it off before the presidency has even started to implement its own side of any agreement with Labour?" he queried, warning the labour leadership against betraying the trust of the people.
He noted that the president's overriding desire to have his way with all manner of policies at all cost has often resonated in even several wrangling within other political parties, including the ANPP, saying this posed a great danger to democracy in Nigeria. He, however, vowed that he "will never join the PDP, because I'm a democrat to the core."
Supported at the media parley by the Edo State Publicity of the ANPP, Comrade Godwin Erhahon, the legislator blamed the current spate of crime in the state and nation-wide on politicians, particularly from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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