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Strike: NLC Demands Apology from Bode George
From Juliana Taiwo in Abuja, 12.04.2004
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has demanded an immediate apology from National Vice Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) South-west, Chief Bode George, for allegedly saying the last general strike/mass protests was financed by Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State. NLC President, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, described the statement credited to George as "thoughtless and malicious allegation." In a statement by Special Assistant to the NLC President, Mr. Olaitan Oyerinde,Oshiomhole insisted that there is no truth in the allegation, emphasising that “no government, governor or public authority funds the NLC.” "The attempt by Chief George to drag the name of NLC into the gutter of partisan political schemings is highly objectionable. It not only smacks of bad faith, but also of bad character. "It is obvious that the thinking and flippancy of Chief George actually mirrors his perception that public funds should be used for the pursuit of sectarian and privatist agenda disguised as political objectives. We recall that this was very much the practice in Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) before Mr. President moved in to save NPA and the nation from the unfortunate chairmanship of Chief George. "Then, with a brazenness yet unrivalled in contemporary times, NPA under Chief George as Chairman of the Board, allegedly became a conduit pipe to funnel resources into purely partisan and non-state business, especially the PDP’s project to hijack the South-west and to fight the elections in Kano State,” the statement said. "This cavalier attitude to public funds and the tendency to use corruption as a political tactic partly reflects the abysmal quality of officership and citizenship, which military adventurism had inflicted on the nation. This deficit is evident in the in this irreformable ex-service man".
He went further: "This unscrupulousness and aversion to standards is at the root of the desperate but futile effort to create fake dissidents in the labour movement to undermine the NLC and its campaign for good governance. Under Chief Georgeís jurisdiction and the influence of his pedestrian methodology, thugs had also invaded the NLCís sub-secretariat during the build up to the strike. "It is a matter of public knowledge that the NLC is a membership-funded, membership-based, membership-controlled, mass and democratic organisation. NLCís campaigns and activities are driven by the interests of its membership, of the working families of Nigerian and the Nigerian people in general. Its highest civil virtue is commitment to the Nigerian nation and people. NLC cannot be available for anybodyís political agenda. "As the product and means of expression of the collective organisation of the working people of Nigeria, NLCís wealth and institutional accomplishments derives from the depth of conviction of its leadership and membership. It also derives from consistency in its pursuit of decent work, good governance and prosperity for Nigeria and Nigerians", he said. Oshiomhole stressed that what Nigerians expected of the leaders of this government and the ruling party is to put their acts together to engage the people constructively over the contents, pace, direction and orientation of the current disputed reforms. "Resort to cheap name-calling and blackmail cannot be substitutes for a well-reasoned approach to tackling the challenges of governance by functionaries of a supposedly ruling party. The real threat to democracy is the authoritarian intolerance manifested in the kind of politics represented by Chief George and the attempt to play God. "This dangerous slide into patriarchal despotism had more recently been at play in Anambra State where arson and destruction of public property were perpetrated by leading lights of Chief Georgeís party under virtual Presidential auspices. "The height of the tragedy was the travesty of dialogue that went on in the form of the summit of the arsonists and their victims brokered by the Party! "Finally, the NLC demands an apology from Chief George. Congress also strongly calls on the leadership of the PDP to call him to order. He has profaned public discourse far too much with his incendiary garrulity and often thoughtless utterances", the NLC said.
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