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Ogbeh, Obasanjo row vindicates NLC on Anambra - Oshiomhole
• Carpets
Presidency, lauds Reps over Labour Bill
By Wisdom Patrick
Snr
Correspondent, Lagos
Labour
says it has been vindicated in its belief that President Olusegun Obasanjo
“is an accomplice” in the Anambra gridlock, as “confirmed by
the revelations” in the open disagreement between the President and
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Audu Ogbeh.
Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC) President Adams Oshiomhole made the point on Thursday
when he visited the corporate headquarters of the Independent Newspapers in
Ogba, Lagos.
He
said the President, in his letter of reply to Ogbeh, made far more startling
but unbecoming revelations than were known to outsiders - and accused Obasanjo of concealment
of criminal information.
But
he did not spare Ogbeh either, saying the man helped to create “an
imperial President which Obasanjo has become”.
It
is soothing that Ogbeh called the President’s attention to a time bomb
waiting to explode, but “I wonder”, Oshiomhole stressed, “if
it was not the same Ogbeh who threatened his party members in the National
Assembly with sanctions if they dared to criticise the President”.
Ogbeh’s
“latter day lamentation about the excessive power of the President”
is therefore seen as unbecoming as “he was the one who helped to create
and nurture Obasanjo into an imperial President whose shortcomings must be
taken for granted”.
However,
he insisted that disclosures made by the President on the Anambra conflict have
cast serious doubts on his credibility and that of the government.
He
said for the President to dispatch a Presidential jet to fly party members to
Anambra State to unravel the cause of the July 10, 2003 abduction of Governor
Chris Ngige, instead of men of the Criminal Investigation Department, showed
that there is more to it than meets the eye.
That
aside, he added, the declaration that the abduction of a sitting governor by
some known individuals was a family matter is “most nauseating in a
country that claims to have respect for the rule of law.
“I
never knew that in a country under the rule of law, when a citizen is abducted
against his wish to another location, and when a governor is made to vacate
office, using the apparati of the state, like the police, that it was a family
matter”.
To
Oshiomhole, subsequent events, like retiring Assistant Inspector General of
Police Olawale Ige, instead of sacking and arresting him for trial, and for the
President to have, on various occasions, participated in reconciling with
arsonists who should have been in police cell “is another clear
indication that he had a pre-knowledge of the problem”.
His
words: “If the President was not interested in fuelling the Anambra
crisis, why did he not report the arsonists to the police? At least he had the
perpetrators of the problem right inside the Villa and there are security
operatives there.
“But
what we witnessed was a situation in which the Villa gate was wide open for
trouble makers to walk in with impunity. All these, when summed up, tell you
who were responsible for the breakdown of law and order in Anambra”.
Oshiomhole
could not find any good reason why Obasanjo allowed Ngige and Chris Uba to walk
away free from Aso Rock after the confession that the former did not win the
governorship election, “his explanation that the matter is before a tribunal
notwithstanding”.
He
also spoke on the Labour Bill, by praising the House of Representatives for
doing a fair job on it, just as he maintained that the executive is out to
cripple the union.
In
his view, the presidency is angry that it does not know where the NLC gets all
the money spent on campaigns and mobilisation, whereas the NLC is one of the
best-run organisations in the country because “the peanuts workers
contribute as dues are well managed and to the benefit of the same workers”.
He
said Nigeria and Nigerians have changed,
that workers would in due course determine the next step of the NLC and
that the House, by carefully studying the bill and passing it the way it did,
has displayed a magnificent level of courage which will show that “at the
end of the day the President has failed”.
According
to Oshiomhole, support for the bill in the House had no bounds as both the
ruling and opposition parties gave it maximum backing.
The
NLC will outlive the Obasanjo administration, he said optimistically,
“because as long as there are exploiters and as long as there are people
who live by ensuring that others die, which ensures a case for struggle, no one
can destroy the trade union. I had earlier told the President that the policy of
unite and control, which he tried to do before, or using divide and rule
tactics would not work because Nigeria and Nigerians have changed”.
Earlier
in the week, the bill passed through the final stage in the House of
Representatives without the clause restraining trade unions from embarking on
strike as sought by the President.
The House adapted the report from an ad-hoc committee set up
to hold a public hearing on it,
which culminated in its decision to delete the clause seeking fresh
registration from all Labour centers, including the NLC.
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