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National
Strike Fallout: FG threatens 1,000 civil
servants with sack
� SGF, head of service compile
list � Obasanjo,
victim of deceitful advisers
� Oshiomhole
By Paul Mumeh
and Bassey Udo
Snr Correspondents, Abuja
Some 1,000 federal civil
servants may be sent packing from their cosy world of perks and influence
into the cold world of joblessess for daring to participate in the
national industrial action staged last week over fuel price
rises.
Aso Rock is reportedly
determined to fire them to show the rest of the workforce of the sort of
fate awaiting them if they join any future action called by the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC).
Part of the Presidential anger
is that the strike was highly successful across the country, against
expectation of failure bandied by government officials who had given the
Villa little more than Dutch courage to stick to its guns against a Labour
union �that has lost focus�.
NLC President Adams Oshiomhole
is not in the least surprised by the reprisal against civil servants � who
were simply victims of circumstances � and has quickly added it to his
long list of vindictive acts by the government against its enemies, real
or perceived.
He insists that President
Olusegun Obasanjo is surrounded by bad advisers, even sychophants, who do
no more than tell him what he wants to hear � and so a leader fed with
half truths at best, and lies at worst, is prone to taking bad decisions;
made worse when he stands his ground despite the loud groans heard from
the citizens everywhere.
Those who have his ears tell
him that social critics, individual or corporate � such as the NLC � are
the problem, Oshiomhole said at the weekend, whereas �the real danger are
those government functionaries who see what is wrong, but chose to tell
the President only what he wants to hear, rather than the
truth�.
The offices of the Secretary
to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Head of Service of the
Federation (HSF) have begun to compile the list of civil servants who
participated in the strike.
Permanent secretaries and
heads of extra ministerial departments have been given directives to
compile and forward the names of those believed to have flouted orders not
to join the highly successful strike, which lasted from Monday to Thursday
last week.
Sources confided that the
measure is targeted to reduce at least 1,000 workers as part of the
ongoing reform programme of the Obasanjo administration.
It is not clear when the
hammer will fall, but the NLC said on Sunday that it will not be deterred
by government blackmail or intimidation in the struggle to emancipate the
citizens.
Oshiomhole pledged that the
body will not join issues with the government but hopes that the
understanding of Labour in the interest of the suffering people should not
be taken by the government as a sign of weakness.
�We are waiting to see the
sack letters, until then, we consider the information as rumour. The
government cannot be insensitive and irrational�, Oshiomhole
stated.
He gave assurance that the NLC
will protect the interest of workers, �no matter the impediment being
created by the oppressive regime�.
In his view, Obasanjo has
rejected all overtures for dialogue over the fuel price crisis because he
appears to be �a victim of misinformation and deceitful advisers� in his
cabinet.
Oshiomhole said in an
interview at the weekend that the President should �re-examine his
cabinet, re-examine all his advisers and personal assistants as well as
all those who have access to him to determine the quality of information
they give him on the issue�.
Indeed, one of them, Labour
and Productivity Minister Hassan Lawan, in the wake of the 14-day
ultimatum preceding the strike, accused the NLC of �derailing from its
original mandate and losing focus� and then dismissed the strike as a
�total failure, as Nigerians ignored the call by the Labour body and went
about their businesses�.
Lawan also accused journalists
of lack of objectivity in their coverage of the work to rule, and said the
government would not bother to dialogue with the NLC, since it was not
declaring the action in pursuit of its primary mandate of defending the
welfare of workers.
But, Oshiomhole, while
reviewing the strike, expressed regrets that Obasanjo did not lend his
ears to dialogue as a way of averting the strike because of a �series of
misinformation and half-truths his advisers and other government
functionaries have been feeding him on issues of national
importance�.
�It is unfortunate that the
President sees those of us who criticise him as wanting to bring his
government down. This is not true. Those of us who see something wrong
with some ill-thought out and ill-digested policies, that provoke endless
uncertainties, that do violence to lives and businesses � like the
deregulation policy � and have the courage to draw attention to them, are
not the real danger to this government.
�The real danger are those
government functionaries who see what is wrong, but chose to tell the
President only what he wants to hear, rather than the truth�.
Reminding Obasanjo about his
October 8 nationwide address in which he said �it was better to fix the
price of petrol at N40 per litre so that Nigerians would feel the pain
once and for all and thereafter would begin to enjoy relief when prices
would begin to come down�, Oshiomhole stated: �We are supposed to believe
our President. Government cannot have integrity in the eyes of the
citizens if statements made, or assurances given, do not come to
pass�.
He added: �The President was
misled by beneficiaries of the ill-thought out deregulation policy by
agents of importers and those who have wrecked our refineries, who are
into this multi-billion business of importation which has made us a
laughing stock in the comity of oil exporting nations.
�We have no excuse that five
years into democracy, we are still lamenting either that the pipelines are
not working, or are working, but the refineries are down. Something must
be wrong that people must now see pipelines as symbols of exploitation�.
The greatest challenge of the
government, in Oshiomhole�s view, is how to resolve the paradox where
Nigeria�s wealth, arising from the windfall in excess oil revenue, is
translating to the poverty of the people, and �the only way to break the
vicious circle of incessant hikes in petroleum products prices and strikes
would be through a holistic appraisal of the petroleum products prices and
distribution�.
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