Headline News
Obasanjo decries labour unrest, vows to split NLC
By Vanguard
Jun 28, 2004, 13:12

LAGOS— PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday took the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to task over labour unrest in the country as a result of increase in fuel prices, saying it is not the responsibility of labour to contend government polices.

President Obasanjo who was speaking during the monthly presidential media chat on the Network Service of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) said the central labour organisation did not want to be democratic even when the country was now in a democracy.

His words: “It is not the responsibility of labour to contend government policies on a general level. People do not remember that I created Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in 1976 when I was the military head of state. Before then, labour was divided between the West and the East. Because we wanted labour unity, I set up a panel to achieve that but we went about it undemocratically and I will be the first to admit it.

“We forced the people to belong to the union because we were military. We are now in a democracy and we want Nigerians to do thing democratically but labour does not want to be democratic.”

According to the president, what the labour is doing is against the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions, adding that the decentralisation of labour is part of his government reform package.

He said: “We told Nigerians that we are going to have a package of reforms and this is one of the reforms because we promised Nigerians we can do things differently.”

The president also explained the significance of National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) Reform Bill before the National Assembly, saying it is to allow the energy sector to be privatised. He said before the bill was sent to the National Assembly, the process of privatisation had already begun with the involvement of the private sector in revenue collection and appointment of independent power producers.

“I have said that the 4,000 megawatts being generated presently is inadequate and that the 10,000 megawatts we plan to generate in 2007 will still not be adequate. The problem in the years between 1982 and 2000 is that not a single power station was added. That is the government establishment and that is why we have to privatise.

“Look at the Nigerian Railway Corporation, it needs N210 million a month to pay pensioners and N250 million to pay salaries but it generates only N30 million. We are going at a fast rate to meet the 16,000 megawatts for 2007. The only problem is that we are not generating through coal and we should use coal to generate.”
President Obasanjo described criticisms that trail the privatisation programme of his administration as what is expected in a democracy.

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