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Kill NLC, Kill Nigeria � NBA warns Obasanjo, National Assembly
Emeka Madunagu and Taiwo Rasak
The Nigerian Bar Association has slammed the Presidency and the National Assembly over the move to �democratize� Labour, saying that the plot was a vindictive move by President Olusegun Obasanjo, which would ultimately lead to the destruction of the country.
Also, the NBA warned that Obasanjo administration is gradually pushing the nation to the precipice, through the steady rise of full-blown dictatorship and the determined move to crush every remaining bastion of opposition to his anti-people policies.
Instead of listening to the people, the government is bent on further impoverishing them and browbeating Nigerians into acquiescence by undermining their capacity to resist bad governance.
NBA president, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), who stated the organisation�s position in an interview in Lagos on Wednesday, said the organization was worried that the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, who a year ago was hailed by President Obasanjo was now being regarded as an enemy because he had led the people to oppose the incessant hikes in the prices of fuel.
According to NBA: �The reason (for government�s move) is not far-fetched. It is because Labour is telling government that Nigerians are suffering. Even if you want to deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry, cushion the effect. That is what the NBA is saying; that is what the NLC is saying; that is what the clergy is saying; that is what you journalists are saying in your editorials; that is what the common-man on the street is saying. But, because there is no opposition to government now, there is a government, there is only one political party in Nigeria, whether we like it or not. It is the PDP. PDP rules, PDP governs, PDP formulates policies, interprets policies and listens to itself. ANPP is no party; it�s no opposition; AD is no opposition; APGA is no opposition. Forget about them; they might have been registered as political parties but the only voices of decency, sanity and dissent are those of the NLC and NBA.
� Now, government doesn�t want any opposition. Yet, there can�t be any democracy without alternative suggestions and views, plurality of opinion. So, why is it at this point in time that the government would want to democratize the NLC?�
But, Olanipekun said government could not wish away the fact that the people were unhappy with its policies, warning Nigerians to be on their guard against rising dictatorship.
�General Obasanjo, as head of state of this country, was the one who worked towards the formation, the realization of a central Labour union in 1978. It suited Nigeria; it has worked for Nigeria since then. I was at the NLC national conference last year when Adams Oshiomhole was seeking re-election. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was at that point in time also campaigning for re-election. In fact, he was about going for the primaries of his party and he said to my hearing (I was on the high table) that Adams Oshiomhole had done wonderfully well for NLC and for the nation and that when Adams Oshiomhole first won election as president of NLC, he (Obasanjo) met with him somewhere in Abuja and he would want, like the story of Elijah and Elisha in the Bible, Elisha would want the impartation of the greatness of his boss to be on him, he said that he would want the luck of Adams Oshiomhole to transfer to him and that Adams Oshiomhole told him that �General, you are going to win,� and that he won. And that since Oshiomhole won this second term bid, that he was sure that he would win. That was last year. I was there and I witnessed it. I heard it, I saw it. A year after now, NLC has become an evil; NLC is now dangerous. Adams Oshiomhole is now an outcast,� he added.
He advised Obasanjo to leave organized Labour alone to handle its affairs and concentrate on serious national issues, adding that �it is inimical to the progress of Nigeria to now say they want to democratize NLC the way they want to do it. They want to render NLC impotent; they want to kill any voice of opposition. They want to send on exile anybody who opposes government�s views and policies, whether or not the policies are negative or anti-people. And it is not in the interest of the government and it is also not in the interest of the nation to have all of us talking for Mr. President and his government every time. If that happens to me as the president of the NBA, I have to watch my back; I have to be wary, because we human beings, a lot of us, are fair-weather people. They have no permanent friends or policies; it�s any government in power. I know a lot of people who were saying that the cap only fitted General Abacha who are now with Chief Obasanjo. But, unfortunately, they are in the majority and they are always in the majority. That shows that something is wrong with our system. Something is also wrong with our leaders.�
Progressive forces
He, however, assured that NBA expected that presidency and the National Assembly would drop the idea, failing which it would liaise with �progressive forces� to provide NLC with �professional and moral support� by challenging the matter in court.
Responding to a question on what would happen should government kill the NLC, he said: �Government cannot kill NLC. If government kills NLC, that means government is killing the conscience of the nation. They are killing the voice of sanity. It would be darkness at noon. Then, it means that you have a government which listens to itself, no opposition. You would have a government that sees and hears itself. A government that can no longer be corrected. A government that can no longer be cautioned. A government that can no longer tolerate alternative views and that is dangerous for the government and the nation. That�s what I mean by darkness at noon.
Anarchy
He warned that Obasanjo and the National Assembly were pushing the nation towards anarchy with their continued refusal to allow Nigerians convene a national conference.
According to him, merely posturing that sovereignty resides in them as elected representatives of the people would not stop the drift because Nigerians were suffering under bad leadership.
�Whether sovereign or not, we can even call it a national meeting. If President Obasanjo and the National Assembly want it the other way, let�s say national discourse. But we have to meet. You can�t govern me without me having an input into the way and manner I�m governed.
� Nelson Mandela said that three things that any normal human being should watch for are the way he is governed, the people who govern him and the need to effect a change. God weaves these three things together into the essence of the creation of man. The National Assembly and the Presidency have told us that they represent the sovereignty. If they have been doing it in the manner we want, would anybody be clamouring for a conference? If they are operating a constitution that is acceptable to each and every one of us, would we be clamouring for a change?�
Using some indicators to buttress the argument for a national dialogue, Olanipekun said: �I read that Dr. Tunji Abayomi, one of President Obasanjo�s lawyers is challenging the constitutionality of the 1999 Constitution. That a subpoena be issued on the Attorney-General of the federation to submit a clean copy of the decree bringing forth the 1999 Constitution, if at all there is any decree. And one of the things they are asking for is that the National Assembly should pass a bill allowing Nigerians to discuss and approve the constitution. Do we need to go to court for that if the president and the National Assembly listen to us? If the president and the National Assembly are saying that they are right, then they are in the minority. North, South, West, East, Christians and Moslems are saying we should have it. The boat is sinking and the president and the National Assembly are saying that they have the sovereignty.
Okigbo report
Olanipekun accused Obasanjo of playing politics with the non-release of the Okigbo Panel report on the spending of the Gulf War windfall, saying that if the report cannot be found, government can set up another one to look into the matter.
He said it was unbelievable that government could claim that the report is missing because of the demise of the panel chairman, Dr. Pius Okigbo, when it could obtain a copy from other members still living.
The manner the report was being handled was a clear reflection of the disdain with which government had treated similar reports of panels it instituted.
SATURDAY PUNCH, June 26, 2004
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