Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Organised Labour, yesterday, vowed to form an alliance with any pro-workers political parties or organisations, in order to rescue the country, which it said was sailing dangerously adrift.
The Organised Labour said it would no longer tolerate anti-people policies; fuel scarcity, unemployment and insecurity, adding that Nigerians are entitled to decent work, good governance and social and economic justice.
It further said that comparatively, the present minimum wage of N30,000, which amounts to a mere N1,000 per day for the workers, is not anywhere close to what is being spent on feeding a prisoner in the country, adding: We are not saying that they are taking good care of the prisoners, but that prisoners are better than workers”.
This is as the former Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has warned workers that the time of narrowly believing that their interests can only be advanced through collective bargaining while they stay aloof and allow ruffians and crooks occupy and dominate the political and governance spaces through manipulation of the electoral process was over.
These were some of the positions taken by labour leaders and activists at a ‘Political Roundtable on Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria’, organised by the Trade Union Congress, (TUC) of Nigeria, in Abuja, with the theme: The Role of Organised Labour in Promoting Participatory Democracy and Good Governance in Nigeria: Perspectives on 2023 General Elections.
Speaking at the conference, President of TUC, Comrade Quadri Olaleye, said Nigerian workers have resolved to stop being onlookers while politicians continue to destroy Nigerias economy.
In his contribution, the National Chairman of the Zenith Labour Party, (ZLP), Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, argued that it had been the Nigerian workers giving life-support to many politicians in both the APC and the PDP, which has been raping them to rape the country.
He called for an alliance between the Labour Party and ZLP, promising that he would not mind stepping down as the national Chairman of ZLP for it to work.
On his part, the former Chairman of INEC, Prof. Jega advised the organised labour to forge unity among the trade unions and labour movements in the country, at the least on the basis of a minimum agenda of mobilising, educating, enlightening and consciencetising Nigerian workers to get them to resolve to use the electoral process in the politics leading to 2023 general elections; in particular to motivate and encourage Nigerian workers to register to vote.
