The National President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Ayuba Wabba has demanded absolute respect for Electoral law by all stakeholders, particularly the political parties and politicians saying Nigerian workers will no longer fold their arms and watch the process of an election being circumvented.
Comrade Wabba made the demand on Thursday at the 6th Quadriennial National Delegates Conference of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) held in Jos, Plateau State.
According to him, it is time for Nigerian workers to rethink their engagement with the development and governance process in a democratic dispensation adding that it is equally important that workers whose lives are being shaped by politicians take a cursory look and interest in politics.
He called on the Nigerian workers to go out and register and get their voters cards adding that with over 12 million workers in both formal and informal sectors coupled with support from families and friends, the workers have the numbers to change the current narrative of setback and failure to a new narrative of thriving and prosperous united and just country.
His words: “We understand that the task of voting out the current politicians would not be an easy task but we must organise ourselves around electoral law and electoral support institutions.
“We demand absolute respect for our electoral law by all stakeholders, particularly political parties and politicians. Given the recent Electoral Act Amendment which accommodates electronic accreditation, the transmission of results and coalition if results, we expect minimal human interference in our electoral management. Workers should maintain oversight vigilance on the implementation and provide feedback for process audits.
“It is to this end that the NLC has concluded a plan to set up a 2023 General Election Situation Room. We would provide our feelings, with election guidance, policy and direction”
On the prevailing situations in the country, the NLC Chairman who was represented by Comrade Emmanuel Ogbuawaja said Nigeria is at a crossroad adding that events of the past weeks clearly depicted that the ship of Nigeria state is at the edge of a precipe
“It is hard to believe that for more than one month the entire country has been held down by acute scarcity of petroleum products. What started as adulterated petroleum products has escalated into other refined petroleum products including diesel and aviation fuel.
“It is difficult to comprehend how the world’s 6th largest producer of crude oil and the largest in Africa degenerated to the point of not being able to refine its crude. As a matter of fact, Nigeria is the only OPEC country that imports almost a hundred per cent of its refined petroleum products from other countries” he said.
Comrade Wabba said organised labour and other Nigerians have insisted over the years that the only way to get out the problems is to get the four refineries back to work and build new ones adding the plea of many years always fell on the deaf ears of successive governments.
“The result is the crisis we are witnessing today where land, air and sea transportation is being disrupted, manufacturing companies are closing down to the collapse of the national grids,” he said.
Also, in his welcome address the National President, AUPCTRE, Comrade Benjamin Anthony. called for the establishment of an Electoral Crime Commission to prosecute those who committed electoral crimes like election rigging, electoral violence and subversion of the will of the electorates.
Comrade Anthony who commended the National Assembly for passing the Amended Electoral Act 2022 and President Mohammadu Buhari for signing it into law enjoined Nigerians to ensure free and fair elections and insisted that people’s votes count and the electoral offenders punished.
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