Ahead
of this year’s democracy day celebration, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC)
has said the 18 years of democracy in the nation has benefitted the political
class and not the average Nigerian.
In
a statement issued on Monday, the president of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba said
despite the inability of democracy to meet the expectations of Nigerians, it
still remains the best form of government.
”While
we celebrate democracy’s irreplaceable gift of freedom, liberty and popular
representation, the truth remains that this democracy has served the political
class and not the average Nigerian but we will continue to support all
processes that will enthrone or perfect our democracy.
“So,
for us in Nigeria, it is perfectly fitting to ask ourselves “how has democracy
served the people of Nigeria?” In our view, 18 years is long enough a time to
ask ourselves how much progress have we made as a people in our democratic
journey? The truth is that 18 years of democracy has come with very sparse
rewards for the Nigerian people,” the statement said .
He
said democracy day reminds Nigerians, ”that we are on a democratic journey
which affords us the space to review how far and how well this journey has
progressed.
“Unfortunately,
those we elected to serve as democratic leaders have not only turned around to
serve themselves but continue to exploit every given opportunity to turn the
rest of us into paupers in our own land,” he added.
The
labour leader said “democracy that does not allocate resources in a manner that
ensures equity, justice and sustained national development or cohesion is
beggarly”.
He
said in spite of the efforts made by the Buhari administration to fight
corruption, ”corruption keeps fighting back more viciously.”
“Despite
escalating costs of living, devaluation of the Naira and general hardship in
the land, the Nigerian worker is still forced to survive on N18,000 as minimum
wage with not a few states owing backlog of salaries and pensions.
“How
well has this democracy uplifted the spaces where we live and work? Without
prejudice to the effort of this government, our infrastructure is still in
tatters. Our roads are impassable and public electricity supply remains
epileptic. Our schools and health facilities have become sorry relics of what
they used to be in the first decade post-independence,” he said .
No comments:
Post a Comment