President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday inaugurated a 34-memebr independent coor-dinating committee on measures to cushion the effect of the recent increases in the prices of petroleum products just as he described the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), as a self-centred organisation out to portray his government in bad light.
“Some people for their own selfish interest and self-centredness are trying to portray this administration in bad light. We were elected for the good of Nigeria today and tomorrow. We will be irresponsible to forget the future and the successor generation. Only a bad father thinks of himself while alive and not of his offsprings. In doing that, such a father will be seen as wicked and irresponsible.”
The committee, which has as its chairman, Deputy Senate President, Nasir Mantu, also has among its 34 members, labour leaders led by the NLC president, Adams Oshiomhole.
But Oshiomhole, who arrived more than one hour before the inauguration ceremony, told State House correspondents that he was not aware of the establishment of the committee.
Expressing surprise when State House correspondents confronted him, the NLC president said he had been invited by government for a stakeholders meeting, saying he has not been informed of the existence of the com-mittee.
Obasanjo explained that his administration “has never arrogated to all knowledge or that it was all kno-wing, adding, “we never attempted to play God and we believe that no individual or group of individual whether elected, appointed, selected or self-proclaimed should play God in our society either by action or pronouncement. We have never fought shy of seeking advice, seeking dialogue or positive compromise or considering dialogue.”
Stressing that the ongoing reforms must continue, Obasanjo lamented that, “most leaders in the world who were leaders were often misunderstood, not by strangers but mostly by their own people when they were executing needed and desirable reforms.”
The function of the committee, he said, is to “collate, harmonise and coordinate measures that will be agreed upon to bring about short term relief and medium term positive impact on the effects of high oil prices.”
State House correspondents had a running battle with security men as they categorically told the jour-nalists that they would not be allowed to interview Adams Oshiomhole even after the inauguration of the committee.
After the inauguration, the committee commenced what was described as its ina-ugural meeting but security men prevented journalists from the venue of the meeting as the journalists waited to interview members after the meeting.
Meanwhile, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole said yesterday that the four-day warning strike by the congress will continue because government was not committed to the resolution of the crisis.
“Before you can begin to tinker with the strike, you have to have what I call irreversible progress. We haven’t yet gotten that. We need to see proof that the grievances of the Nigerian people are under consideration.
“We haven’t had time to deal with the issues in contention. The meeting is adjourned till Thursday, October 14, 2004, because most members of the government feel they need time to get some information and analyse their options and so on. We hav-en’t yet resolved the matter. So, the strike continues,” he said.
Comrade Oshiomhole said that there was need to make a holistic appraisal of petroleum product prices and distribution so that the country can get out of what he referred to as the “vicious circle of hike in the prices of petroleum products.”
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