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As NLC
Mobilises for Mass Action...
Labour Is Threat to
Democracy, Says Atiku
Fuel Price Hike
From Cletus Akwaya, Chuks
Okocha, and Ahamefula Ogbu in Abuja and Chris Nwachuku in Lagos
Vice
President Atiku Abu-bakar yesterday accused the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) of
undermining the nation's democracy through its frequent resort to strike
action to press for its demands from government.
But the NLC will today intensify mobilisation for the June 9 mass action and
general strike in protest against the hike in price of fuel as it meets with
representatives of 38 civil society groups, students, university and
polytechnic staff unions to work out strategy on how to prosecute the action.
Atiku at the on-going five day conference of African Privatisation Network
(APN) in Abuja said Labour always resort to
strikes instead of dialogue to resolve issues, thereby posing a threat to the
survival of democracy.
Before making his remark, the vice president asked whether the NLC president,
Adams Oshiomhole, was in the audience, a question which attracted mixed
reactions from the delegates in the Congress Hall of the NICON Hilton Hotel,
venue of the conference.
An obviously enraged Atiku who represented President Olusegun Obasanjo noted
that, "in the last four years, threats by the NLC have been more
regular. That is not the way to go about it. Dialogue should be the way. If
there is any institution that is threatening our democratic experiment, that
institution is the NLC".
He said the deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry was in
the interest of the economy. "Those of us from the North have not had
fuel in the last 15 years until the deregulation and now we can buy fuel from
fuel stations," he said.
He assured that the prices of petroleum products would come down in due
course just as the cost of telecommunication services have dropped in the
last three years due to reforms in that sector.
Obasanjo in his paper, delivered by the vice president, called on African
countries to "rise beyond the challenge of the so called 'New Economic
Order' to the now prevailing issue of globalisation." He also accused
African nations of holding the wrong notion that developed countries will
help them to develop.
"We borrowed money, which we did not utilise well and today we are
bogged down with a high debt burden that is crippling our underdeveloped
economies. Most African countries have also resigned themselves to the
handouts from donor agencies to run governments," he said.
He added that the economic salvation of Africa lied in "what we can do for
ourselves as a continent not what others can do for us." He added that
the donor countries could only be valued partners in progress.
The president said the essence of privatisation was not only for African
businesses to acquire shares in state enterprises but to attract direct
foreign investment and technical expertise.
"We know that privatisation, by itself is not enough .It has to go with
liberalisation. For this reason, we in Nigeria have embarked on key sector
reforms as a necessary compliment to privatisation. Our efforts in
telecommunications sector have proved a huge success in this regard," he
said.
The NLC meeting with the civil society, THISDAY learnt, is excepted to
harmonise the approach and strategies for the strike. Lagos and other major cities in the
country are to be divided into units or zones with a monitoring and
mobilisation committee appointed to surpervise them.
The chairman of labour-civil society coalition, Mr. Bamidele Aturu will lead
the civil society team to the meeting. Among organisations expected to be
represented at the meeting are Democratic Alternative (DA), National
Conscience Party (NCP), Campaign for Democracy (CD), and United Action for
Democracy (UAD).
NLC Assistant General Secretary, Denja Yaqub, told THISDAY last night that
the labour-civil society coalition would unveil an action plan after the
meeting especially on how to handle the South-western axis in which Lagos zone is the co-ordinating centre.
"As I am speaking to you over 38 civil society organisations have
indicated strong interest to participate, not just to attend the meeting but
effectively mobilise Nigerians for the strike. The leadership of NLC, CFTU,
civil society organisations especially the human rights campaigners are all
involved," said Yaqub.
Also, two trade union organisations which accommodate the senior staff
associations yesterday endorsed the strike action.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Congress of Free Trade Union (CFTU) have consequently
asked all their members to comply with the directive of NLC and join the
nationwide strike from June 9.
TUC at the end of its National Action Executive Council meeting endorsed the
strike and mass action. The congress stated that the new fuel price had made
life miserable for Nigerians. The organisation declared that the increase in
prices of petroleum products was not only unnecessary but had caused a
dramatic increase in cost of living especially on transportation, basic food
items as well as other services.
"TUC hereby directs all its effigies, associate partners in all states
of the federation including Abuja to embark on a national strike from
Wednesday June 9, 2004 until further notice," its President General,
Mrs. Nkiru Obiajunlu said.
Addressing newsmen after the meeting, Obiajulu said the strike can only be
averted if the price of fuel is reverted to N39 per liter on or before
Tuesday June 8, 2004. Last week, marketers raised the price of fuel to
between N49.50 to N60 per litre citing the rising price of crude oil in the
international market as a cause.
TUC also demanded that the Federal Government should demonstrate a political
will to repair the refineries as well as account for the colossal amount of
money claimed to have expended to revamp the refineries.
Labour also urged government to follow due process and involve labour leaders
in the privatisation of the refineries.
On its part, CFTU at its NEC meeting in Ikeja also yesterday declared
government actions very insensitive to the feelings, desire and welfare of
the citizenry.
The center noted with dismay that the increase in fuel price besides being
pro-active also had exacerbated the current inflation trend. According to
CFTU interim president Fred Adefagbola, the effect of the policy is the
untold hardship which workers, students, the unemployed and the masses are
going through.
CFTU directed all its affiliate members, which include transport workers,
senior staff association of banks, iron and steel senior staff among others
to join the nationwide strike from June 9.
NCP said it was unequivocally in support of the proposed nationwide strike
because the people were unjustifiably being asked to pay more for petroleum
products at a time the fortune of the nation is improving.
The party noted that Nigeria had recorded N140 billion as
excess revenue from crude oil sales between January and May 2004, and that
the $42 per barrel of crude oil is the highest since 1983.
"The more money Nigeria makes, the more the suffering of
the people. There is something fundamentally wrong with the system that
impoverishes the people, whatever happene to the demand and price of exports
in the international market," he said.
Also, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), the umbrella body
of opposition political parties and the Nigerians United for Democracy (NUD)
have expressed support for the strike and mass action called by NLC to
protest the increase in the price of petroleum products.
In a statement signed by the Secretary General of CNPP, Maxi Okwu, the
opposition parties said, "Some of the issues articulated by labour are
matters on which we as CNPP had cried ourselves hoarse. The CNPP/NUD has
since 2003 been calling for public exposure of all those who benefited from
over US $700m Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) contracts with nothing to show
for it. Those are the real enemies of the people."
Meanwhile, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Bello
Masari, said despite the windfall accruing to the Federal Government from
high crude prices, the stringent clauses in the 2004 budget is constraining
bids to get money to subsidise the cost of petroleum products.
Masari said President Olusegun Obasanjo could not utilise the excess income
from oil exports to subsidise domestic consumption of fuel, unless
appropriated by the National Assembly.
While calling on the Federal Government to immediately work out modalities to
cushion the effect of the rising cost of fuel in the country, Masari said
Nigerians should not only suffer from the increase in international prices of
crude, but should also benefit from it.
The Speaker denied that the House was indifferent to the problems of the
people by going on a six-week recess while the nation was heading towards
crisis with the planned strike called by the NLC. He added that the lawmakers
were working to resolve the issue.
Asked if it would not be wise to resume the suspended crude oil allocation to
the NNPC for domestic consumption, Masari said such action should not be
contemplated because the NNPC was selling the allocation without accounting
to anyone. Restoring the allocation would mean supporting corruption in the
corporation, the speaker said.
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