BENIN CITY — DEPUTY Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mr. Emmanuel Arigbe-Osula, yesterday, urged President Olusegun Obasanjo to forget his dream of proscribing the the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) as members of the National Assembly and the general public will not support it.
He told Vanguard in an interview that President Obasanjo was unnecessarily venting his anger on the NLC which was only expressing the feelings of Nigerians on the policies of his government, adding that “the president will be shooting himself in the foot if he does anything detrimental to the union as the people will rise against him.”
The lawmaker who described as reckless a recent statement by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Chief Akin Olujimi that Nigerians should brace up to the reality that they would sooner or later be paying N70 per litre of fuel, said it was such uncaring attitude being displayed by the people in government that the NLC is fighting.
He said the National Assembly would not support such a course as “it is anti-people. The minister’s warning, I must tell you, is self-serving and flagrant contempt for the Nigerian people and a display of this administration’s irresponsibility which some of us are bound to condemn, no matter the intimidation because of the oath of our office.”
Arigbe-Osula noted that the petroleum sector being handled by Mr President has been the most pain-inflicting sector of our economy and social life, pointing out that “the inability of this government to know that it is its constitutional duty to harness the resources of the nation and promote national prosperity and an efficient, dynamic and self-reliant economy leaves much to be desired.
“This government is supposed to control our national economy in such a manner as to secure maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every Nigerian on the basis of social justice, equality of status and opportunities but what we have seen is obvious manifestation of incompetence.
“They should know that the Constitution of our country spelt out that the material resources of the nation should be harnessed and distributed as best as possible to serve the common good of the citizenry. So, what have they done that the NLC as an organized body of Nigerian workers will not complain, go on strike or call government to order if we, as a major producer of petrol cannot distribute petrol to the citizenry at an affordable cost?,” he asked.
