CNPP, Senate panel chief berate govt over ASUU strike
From Alifa Daniel (Abuja) and Dele Fanimo (Maiduguri)
THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday alerted workers to a plan by the Federal Government to commence full deregulation of the oil industry by the beginning of next month.
NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar, gave the warning in Maiduguri, Borno State, while addressing workers as part of the nationwide protest against the deregulation of the oil industry, agitation for increase in minimum wage to N52,200 and the implementation of the electoral reforms.
And as university teachers began an indefinite strike on Monday over discord on Govt-ASUU agreement, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) and the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Education, Joy Emordi, have urged the Federal Government to faithfully implement agreements reached with the lecturers to end industrial disputes.
According the NLC president, since Labour creates wealth which the people in government have decided to squander while a majority of the people suffer, the only option left is for them to ground wealth creation.
He said: "The wheel around our symbol in NLC logo signifies the toil of the workers moving the wheel to create wealth, and the minority group in government has decided to take our own natural resources which is oil beyond our reach, then the only plausible option is to ground the wheel that creates the wealth. The day deregulation is firmly entrenched in this country, Nigerian workers will stop running the wheel and let us see the wealth they will generate and use against us."
Omar said that the existing minimum wage was too poor when compared to the level of inflation in the country and the escalating cost of goods and services, adding that the revenue of government was sufficient enough to pay the minimum wage being agitated for by the workers.
While expressing solidarity with workers, former NLC President, Ali Ciroma, said it was against the rule of justice for political office holders elected to serve the people to increase their own salaries by over 800 per cent while the minimum wage of workers remained stagnant at N 5,500.
He said government should show enough political will to implement the Uwais panel on electoral reform report because it was the only way by which the will of the people through their votes could count.
According to him, the only way for democracy to thrive in Nigeria is to implement the report, which is targeted at eliminating electoral fraud and bringing about good leadership that will take the country to the next level.
As was the case in other state capitals where NLC held similar rallies, a letter was delivered to the Governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, by Omar for onward delivery to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.
Responding, Sheriff thanked the leadership of NLC and workers generally for toeing the path of peace and urged them to embrace dialogue in their quest for a better society and workers' welfare. He assured them that he would personally deliver the letter to the President.
However, in a statement yesterday, CNPP spokesman, Osita Okechukwu, said: "CNPP had carefully gone through the issues in dispute and came to the inevitable conclusion that ASUU's long-time demand is not self-serving" but is patriotically meant to uphold Section 18 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, UNESCO's Declaration and even the empty seven- point agenda of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's administration.
"For the avoidance of doubt, Section 18 of our Constitution states inter-alia:- 'Government shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels", and UNESCO stipulates that 26 per cent minimum should be the annual budgetary provision for education. This in summary is in tandem with the spirit and letters of the agreement, which a government whose mantra is the rule of law is evading like plague.
The party noted: "...while Chief Obafemi Awolowo voted 51 per cent, Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, voted 47 per cent and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe voted 43 per cent budget allocation, respectively in the defunct regions for education; a 21st Century president, vice president and minister of education who were lecturers and their surrogate governors cannot vote 20 per cent for education."
It added: "Is it not ironical that the same template of demands, which led to the UNILORIN 49 imbroglio in 2001, is still subsisting? Or is it because the children of those in power are schooling in private universities, Ghana, Malaysia, U.S. or Europe that makes them insensitive to funding education?"
On her part, Emordi, speaking in Abuja yesterday, enjoined major stakeholders, including Yar'Adua and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, as former teachers, to work hard to ensure that the strike by university teachers was not protracted even as she insisted like her colleague, Senate Information Committee Chairman Ayogu Eze, a day before that the government was duty bound to execute the agreement it reached with ASUU.
"Once they agree on something, they have to sign it,'' she said in disapproval of the government's reluctance to sign the agreement.
She said because the government had begun executing some parts of the agreement, ASUU also should consider calling off the strike.
