The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday urged the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, to respect the process and outcome of elections and create value, as well as restore dignity to their offices.
NLC President, Mr. Abdulwaheed Omar, in a communiqué issued after the National Executive Council, NEC, meeting of the Congress said labour has watched with keen interest the developments in the NGF and wants to sound a note of caution.
He said that while congress admits that like any group of people, the governors have a right to organise themselves, it should be within the civilised norms of society.
Congress, he added, refuses to believe that governors, who are themselves beneficiaries of supposedly credible elections cannot organise a simple election among themselves.
Omar said the current situation amongst the governors presupposes that something fundamental must have gone wrong somewhere, saying whatever it is, the governors and their fellow travellers in power should quickly fix it.
“As critical custodians of the peoples’ mandate and grand beneficiaries of our democracy, there are certain things governors must not be seen to be doing. We at the congress irrevocably stand for certain values, which we will not compromise for anything. We are opposed to impunity at all levels and the undermining of national security and unity. We have respect for process and its outcome.
We stand for justice. “In the light of the foregoing, we call on our governors to create value around as well as restore dignity to their office. Get back to work instead of unnecessarily overheating the polity,” he said. Omar also advised the governors not to put the nation’s hard-earned democracy in jeopardy through their actions and respect the process and outcome of their election.
The congress also said that it has named its subsecretariat in Lagos after the sage of labour movement in Nigeria, late Pa Michael Imoudu, while its national secretariat in Abuja was renamed Paschal Bafyau Labour House, after the labour leader who died last year.
Similarly, the NEC-insession also named its auditorium in Abuja, the Olaitan Oyerinde Auditorium, after its slain deputy General Secretary, Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde, who was killed last year, while on secondment to Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole.
In Akure, Ondo State, social commentator and politician, Professor Pat Utomi yesterday said the outcome of the NGF election is a pointer to what would happen in the country’s general election in 2015.
Condemning the outcome of the election, Utomi said that if the 36 governors could not manage an election within themselves, it is doubtful if they would be able to manage an election involving over 150 million people across the country.
Utomi, who spoke at the 2013 National Youth Summit, NYS, organised by Coordinated Youth Campaign of Nigeria, a nongovernmental organisation, said the current trend of power without purpose to make governance meaningful to the people of the country must stop.
He said: The election signifies there’s problem, because if there is dispute in an election among 36 people, how can such people manage the election of over 150 million. So there’s a need for paradigm shift, there is a need to stop this current trend of power without purpose and focus on the essence of government to serve people.
“The emphasis should be on creating jobs, making life worth living and this is why people are being recruited into all these anti social activities.”
Meanwhile, seven governors of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday shunned the commissioning of the new secretariat of the faction loyal to President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja The governors include Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Aliyu Babangida (Niger), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Aliyu Wamako (Sokoto), Saidu Dakingari (Kebbi), Sullivan Chime (Enugu) and Abdullfatah Ahmed (Kwara) The governors are believed to be under intense heat from the party over their roles at the just concluded NGF election, which returned Governor Amaechi as the chairman.
The two-storey butter coloured secretariat building is located at No 2, Nana Street and was formally unveiled by factional chairman of the NGF, Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State and his vice, Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State, accompanied by 14 others.
After the unveiling, all the 16 governors, which included deputy governors of Gombe and Benue states, later went round to inspect facilities inside the building. Other governors at the commissioning were those of Delta, Ebonyi, Taraba, Kaduna, Kogi, Abia, Katsina, Bauchi, Bayelsa and Benue.
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