The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has condemned the pardon granted to former Bayelsa State governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha. NLC described the pardon as a major dent on the Federal Government’s commitment to fight corruption. President of the NLC, Abdulwaheed Omar, who said this in his address at the centenary May Day celebration in Abuja, noted that corruption remained the most serious factor undermining the realization of our economic potential and urged the Jonathan administration to deal with all pending cases of corruption if he must reclaim its lost ground and reassure Nigerians of its genuine determination to fight corruption.
The NLC president, while charging government to take the fight against corruption more seriously, lamented that “over the past 10 years, there has been a catalogue of corruption allegations against highly placed government officials announced with fanfare, in some cases charged to court, but which have since vanished from national view without diligent prosecution.”
Earlier in his address, President Goodluck Jonathan, while noting that his transformation agenda was about taking and implementing measures to give Nigeria a brighter tomorrow, said Labour had been in the fore front of the demand for good governance and increased action against corruption which his administration was pursuing vigorously from various fronts. The president said prosecutions were being pursued in matters arising from petroleum subsidy fraud, embezzlement of pension fund and other serious long-standing malpractices demystified by his administration.
He said: “Given that some of these perpetrators are senior and junior members of labour unions, greater attention to peer review action on the part of labour will be much appreciated.” The Workers Day, which took place at the Eagle Square, featured a march past by workers, who marched and danced to the beautiful tunes from the Guards Brigade and police band. On insecurity,
Omar, while lamenting on the daily killings and slaughtering of innocent Nigerians in incidences of armed robbery, assassination, kidnappings, arson, communal clashes, bombings, insurgencies and food insecurity, among others, attributed the menace to products of years of poor leadership, bad governance, weak institutions, lack of accountability, corrosive corruption, political impunity, poor planning and prioritization, socio-economic injustices and inequities. He appealed to members of the Boko Haram group to lay down their arms and step out for reconciliation talks.
Omar, who also spoke on the growing rate of unemployment, which, he described as monumental, said: “It is obvious that we are facing an unemployment time bomb in our nation.” He lamented that majority of those affected were youths who constituted a veritable army of the hungry, disillusioned and angry “that can undermine the stability, security and peace of any nation if left unattended.”
He maintained that the crisis of underdevelopment, which had continued to engulf the nation, was fuelled mainly by corruption and called on government to account for the actual number of barrels of oil pumped from our reserves. Also speaking,
President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Peter Esele, while calling on government to pay more attention to the agricultural sector by addressing the problems, which, he said, included inadequate funding, briefcase farmers, substantial non-mechanization, inadequate irrigation, poor transportation, lack of storage and processing facilities, among others, noted that the agricultural sector had the capacity of regaining its lost position as the mainstay of the nation’s economy and providing employment for 70 percent of the population.
On the amnesty granted to the Boko Haram members, Esele, urged the government to draw the line between amnesty and justice, especially when many innocent people had been killed. He also called on government not to overlook the root causes, which, he said, included mass illiteracy and ignorance, poverty and deprivation, widespread unemployment and proffer solution to them as soon as possible.
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