• As Odah charges Nigerians to protect electoral process
The organised labour movement has urged presidential candidates to engage workers on alternatives to fuel subsidy.
The movement also pledged not to force workers to vote for any particular candidate but will encourage its members to vote for thos who are going to protect their interests.
The General Secretary of the Non-Academic Union of Universities and Associated Institutions (NASU), Peters Adeyemi, who stated this at the celebration of a labour leader, Angela Odah, at 50, hinted that unions are willing to engage all presidential candidates on alternatives to subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
His words: “As far as NASU is concerned, our members are free to vote for candidates of their choice. Every member of NASU has that freedom. We are not compelling any of our members to pick a specific political party. The fact that we are a union does not impose on us the right to dictate to our members which political parties they should vote for.”
Adeyemi submitted that Nigeria is yet to produce a dominant Labour Party, which serves as a rallying point for workers as currently happening in South Africa, Brazil and the United Kingdom.
However, while admonishing workers to vote for credible candidates that will uplift the living conditions of the people, Adeyemi said voters must be convinced that their choices are based on clear convictions, saying, “because what may be good in Lagos may not be good in Oyo State.
What may be good in Oyo may not be good in Sokoto. So, it is going to be foolhardy to just give a blanket support to any political party.”
He added that NASU is more interested in the tangibility of what each candidate is bringing to the table.
“For us in NASU, one of the most topical issues workers have laboured so much about in this country is the issue of deregulation and removal of subsidy.
“The idea is that if subsidy must go, something must come. There must be something that is on the ground and not just by words of mouth. You must have a commitment with the movement in concrete terms on the ‘how’ the subsidy will be removed and what will replace it. There must be a workable agenda that will take into cognisance the pains that will be inflicted on the Nigerian people if government takes certain actions or steps. No presidential candidate has told labour the details of how he will remove subsidy as at today.”
On his part, the Executive Secretary of Organisation of Trade Unions in West Africa (OTUWA), John Odah, called for a joint policing of the electoral process by the labour movement and civil society groups by ensuring that BVAS and other critical processes are complied with.
He stated: “That Nigerians led by civil society and trade unions need to police the effective use of the BVAS, that the desperate politicians do not scuttle all the reforms that have been made over the years to ensure that elections count and that the votes of the Nigerian citizens count in determining who is a elected to lead Nigeria. So, this is a challenge those who become new leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress needs to take very seriously.”
Odah also stressed the need for a new leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) next year to foster a close collaboration between the labour movement and civil society groups.
He said: “Going forward in 2023, I think that whoever become President of the NLC need to work harder to rebuild the trust between the trade unions and civil society. On the understanding that they are not necessarily compatible, the civil society organisations have a very unique and strategic use, and the trade unions, as mass based-organisations need to understand how best to collaborate with them to form a very quality alliance relationship.”
Odah, who is a former General Secretary of the NLC, insisted that labour movement enjoyed better relationship with civil society groups in the course of demands for the rights of Nigerians especially under Adams Oshiomhole as the President of the NLC.
Source”: Guardian.ng