By: Valentine Adese (JP) and Alfred Saiki,
The renowned Legal Luminary, Prof. Mike Ozekhome has berated the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) for calling of the protest/strike the mobilized for prematurely.
Chief Prof. Mike (SAN) in an interview with Journalists at the Plateau State High Court premises, after appearing in Petition No: EPT/PL/SEN/06/2023, filed by Golkuna Yohanna Gottom and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who are challenging the election of the Plateau Central Senatorial District and the declaration of Sen. Diket Plang as the winner said, the decision to prematurely call of the protest/strike within one or two day is not good for the country as the leadership of the Labour Movements seem not to have considered the masses, enormity of the process of mobilizing for the protest/strike, which took quite some time and resources.
He also berated the Federal Government for the wrong policies and the way they sort to implement them.
He said, “I think the Federal Government is getting it all wrong, we are simply on a circle show without progress. We are not going forward and at times, we even go backwards. So, nothing has changed”.
IN PART, PROF. MIKE OZEKHOME (SAN) SAID:-
“The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the TUC, gave a note of warning strike, the Government rejects, preceded to the Court, procured and get an Interim Order. The Labour Congress ignored it and went ahead with the protest/strike.
“Then one or two days later, they said the Government is talking to us and we have decided to listen to the Government therefore, we are calling off the protest/strike. They didn’t consider the enormity of the process of mobilizing for the protest/strike, which took quite some time and resources.
“And for them to just deflate their members just like that, like a pin into a balloon and called off the protest/striker prematurely is not good for this country.
“What has the Labour movement achieved on behalf of the commoners, who are suffering and scrapping from the dustbins to survive?
“Nigerians that are denied, ignored, oppress and marginalized. “Nigerians that can’t even have even two meals not to talk of three square meals. “ wht happens to Nigerians that bore and trek to work, while they have been used to taking busses and taxis, they can’t even take motorcycles.
“Journeys of 100 Naira has gone up to 500 Naira. Journeys of 500 Naira before, is about 2000 to 3000 and the minimum wage remains the same.
“So, if an average civil servant pays 2000 everyday to and fro to his or her work and then uses 1000 Naira to eat that’s 5000 Naira everyday and that’s Hundred Thousand monthly.
“So, they want the Civil Servant that they pay Thirty Thousand Naira monthly to use, One Hundred Thousand to go to work and then, when they go stealing, you capture them and say they are thieves?
“I think the Government is getting it all wrong, we are simply on a circle show without progress. We are not going forward and at times, we even go backwards. So, nothing has changed.
“I said it before in the last 6 to 9 months, weather Tinubu, weather Atiku or Peter Obi becomes, the President of Nigeria after the Supreme Court verdict cannot solve Nigerians problems because, the problem is endemic and is fundamentally on edged.
“It is the problem of the national question! How we are and how we are living together, where we are coming from and where we want to go to.
“If after the amalgamation of the Northern and South Africa in 1914, to form this contraption called Nigeria, things have gotten so bad that we are practicing a Unitary Constitution instead of a Federal Constitution. We need to go back to the drawing board to have a people driven Constitution that would be made by the people and subjected to referendum of the people, owned by the people, to command the legitimacy, credibility, acceptability and durability of the people. That’s what we call the ’People’s Constitution’.
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